Cardenio
by X X Ringo X X
Summary: Co-written with lil-miss-harkness. Kes and Ashleigh are normal muggle girls until, on their 11th bday, they receive strange letters and an even stranger visitor. What happens when they meet and befriend Harry and co? Will it all end well? 4th book on.
1. Kes: The road less travelled

**_Hello from both of us! Many apologies to Kes's faithful Narnia readers, but we've been inspired to write this! Co-written with lil-miss-harkness. :)_**

**_Disclaimer: If we owned Harry Potter, it would be so much more random_**

Cardenio

_**Prologue**_**: The road less travelled**

_Kes POV_

It was March 1st, 1991, and it was our 11th birthday. I say our not because, like Gollum, I refer to myself in the plural, but because, by some happy coincidence, my best friend Ashleigh and I happened to share a birthday. No, we weren't twins, we just happened to have been born on the same day. She was marginally older, having been born at 3.02am, while I was born at 5.01am, a fact she frequently liked to remind me of, but I was marginally more sensible. I say marginally, and I mean it. In fact, the only reason for my sensibleness was that I could be shy, and she wasn't, so I came across better when in the company of older people. However, she tended to make friends faster and more easily than me. Had I have been able to choose, I would've preferred the outgoingness.

Anyway, every year since we'd met at the age of 7, we'd always had a sleepover on our birthday, just the two of us. It was kind of a tradition. We would alternate between houses, and this year it was my turn. So it was that 7.34pm on March 1st found us sprawled on the floor in my bedroom, dipping into a bowl of popcorn and doing karaoke. Badly, I might add. Anyway, we were halfway through a splendid rendition of "Uptown Girl" when an owl flew in my window. Needless to say, the line I was singing went slightly wrong.

"Uptown Girl, you know I- WHAT THE HELL?!" The karaoke kindly informed me I was awful.

"There's an owl in your bedroom." I turned to Ashleigh, my best friend, with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, thank you so much. I hadn't noticed."

"Just thought I'd point it out." At that moment, the owl, which was surveying us with a distinctly amused expression, was joined by another. Ashleigh and I exchanged glances. The owl nearest to me, which was whitey-grey, held out its left leg, to which a rolled up piece of paper was attached. Ashleigh frowned. "I think it wants you to take the paper."

"Are you kidding? I am going _nowhere_ near that owl. What if it bites me?"

"Yeah..." We watched both of the owls nervously for a few moments, as singstar played to itself in the background, before they seemingly got bored – if, that is, owls can get bored, and pulled the letters off themselves, dumping them unceremoniously on the floor in front of us. It occurred to me at that moment that we possibly ought to call my parents. I was about to suggest this when Ashleigh reached out and picked up the letter in front of her. On it was written her full name, including her middle name, which no one but me and her parents knew, and then not her address but mine, the top line of which read "The box room". I stared as she opened the envelope and began to read her letter in silence. Finally, curiosity got the better of me and, still watching the owl warily out of the corner of my eye, I reached out and opened mine. It was written on thick creamy paper, almost parchment, in an elegant hand reminiscent of Shakespearian times. The letter read thus:

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,_

_Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)_

_Dear Miss Tamblyn,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl no later than 31 July._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress_

Wow. I blinked. Was this some kind of joke? I'd been accepted to "Hogwarts" which was what kind of name exactly? And Witchcraft and Wizardry? Right.... I looked up to find Ashleigh wearing an identical expression of bemusement and incredulity. Just as I was about to ask her whether she reckoned this was a case of practical joke or clinical insanity, there was a knock at the door. I ignored it, knowing that my mum or dad would answer it, and continued to stare at the letter in my hands. I really didn't know what to make of it.

"We await your owl?" Ashleigh frowned "Who has an owl?!"

I looked pointedly at the two birds sat in my bedroom. "Apparently these people."

"So 'We await your owl' really means 'RSVP'?"

"Guess so, but RSVP where, and why? We've never heard of these people, at least I haven't – have you?"

"Nope."

"This is weird."

"Hell yeah."

"_KES! ASHLEIGH!"_ That was my mum yelling from down stairs. I sighed at Ashleigh and stood up, bouncing down the stairs and momentarily forgetting about the creamy parchment in my hand. I tripped on the third step from the top and only just regained my balance, grinning over my shoulder at Ashleigh, who shook her head, fully acquainted with my clumsiness. We got to the bottom of the stairs, me in front, jumping the last step as we always did, and turned into my living room. I froze. Ashleigh walked into me, opened her mouth to ask why I'd stopped, then looked past me into the living room and forgot to close it again. "Wha...?"

The eminent, flamboyant, camp looking man who was currently seated on my sofa smiled serenely back at us. "Ah... I see you have received our letter." He nodded at the paper in our hands. We looked at each other and then back at him. He was dressed in what looked like a flowing purple dress, a silvery beard reaching halfway down his stomach. A pair of glasses were perched precariously on the end of his Pinocchio nose, and, although he looked slightly odd, his expression was kind, and the overall impression was of an ageing hippy. I suppressed a giggle.

Ashleigh snapped out of the shock slightly more quickly than me. "Your letter? Who are you?"

The man practically beamed. "Why, my dear, I am Professor Albus Dumbledore, current headmaster of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry."

I nodded. "Yeah, we read the letter."

"Ah, good! Then you know all about Hogwarts."

We exchanged glances. "Um, no... not really."

"Well, as I have just explained to your parents" I glanced at them, but they still seemed to be in shock "Miss Skelhorn and yourself have been offered a place at my school."

"Why?" Ashleigh blurted. "We're not... wizards or whatever."

"No indeed my dear." He smiled. "You are witches."

We both looked at him in silence. Eventually, my mum spoke up. "I don't understand. I mean, we're not... witches." She gestured to my dad and herself.

"No." Professor Albus Dumbeldore (great name) smiled. "Your daughter, and Miss Skelhorn here, are Muggle born, but they nevertheless have magical power."

I said "WOW!" at the same time as Ashleigh yelled "COOL!" After a minute I added "But are you sure? I mean, we can't be witches? We're just... normal."

"Yes." Dumbledore nodded. "Tell me. Have you ever done something that you can't explain, when experiencing a powerful emotion?"

Ashleigh and I looked at each other, and then she spoke up sheepishly. "Well... once we were really annoyed with our Maths teacher..." she looked at me helplessly and I sighed and continued.

"Basically... her car ended up... in the science lab... which is on the second floor..."

"Our Biology teacher was in there at the time as well." Ashleigh added. "She's never been the same since..."

Dumbledore smiled. "I dare say she'll be alright. Anything else?"

Once again we blushed. "Well, there was the time with Liz..." Dumbledore waited. "Well, she wouldn't stop singing, and she was really really bad! But she thought she was good! So... she lost her voice. Um, permanently."

Dumbledore laughed. "I trust it was later returned to her?"

"Yeah, one day she just got it back. She's not as annoying now."

Dumbeldore's eyes twinkled. "Well, don't worry about school supplies – I'll send one of my staff to take you to Diagon Alley."

My parents, looking back and forth between Ashleigh and I, seemed to be somewhere between disbelief and confusion. Dumbledore stood up. "Anyway, I really must be going now. I need to have a word with Miss Skelhorn's parents. Thank you for the tea." He nodded at the brightly coloured mug on the coffee table. "Don't get up – I'll show myself out." And, bowing his head as he passed Ashleigh and I, he did.

A few months later found us at King's Cross train station, staring blankly at Platforms 9 and 10. Our parents, remembering Dumbledore's visit, had opted to leave us at the entrance to the station. I looked down at my ticket for what seemed like the thousandth time, and then looked back at Ashleigh. Dumbledore had kept up his promise and sent a rather scary woman named Professor McGonagall to help us get our school stuff. As well as school books and uniform, we had purchased pets and a wand. Mine was 14" birch and unicorn hair, Ashleigh's 12" cherry and thestral hair. Back in the present, trying to push away the fear I felt at going away to boarding school, I focused on our problem. Ashleigh was walking up and down, searching for any clue as to where we ought to go. I set off after her pushing my huge trolley in front of me and trying to see over the top of it. My cat, Mouse, meowed at me from his cat basket, and I shushed him, craning to look over my suitcase. Unfortunately, I was just too small, and therefore effectively blind. Couple this with clumsiness and you don't get a good result. I pushed my trolley straight into a tall, red haired boy pushing a trolley of his own.

"Oh! Sorry!"

He grinned easily "Don't worry about it – it's not like you can see over that trolley." Ashleigh came over to me, pushing her own trolley with her owl Starbuck's cage perched on top. The ginger boy's eyes widened. "You're not off to Hogwarts are you?"

"Yeah! Are you? Cos we can't find the platform and we don't want to miss the train, but there's no sign!"

"Ohhhhhh." Comprehension dawned on his face, and he turned his head, yelling over his shoulder at another redhead behind him "Oi, George. There're a couple of first years over here. Let's show 'em the platform."

The other boy turned around and I saw with surprise that he was identical to the boy stood in front of us. Twins I suppose. He came over and I saw he was slightly shorter than the other, and his eyes slanted down at the edges, making the first twin better looking. They couldn't be older than 13. The second twin, George, spoke up. "So you're Muggleborns then?"

Remembering the phrase from Dumbledore's visit, I nodded. "Yeah. Can you help us, please?"

The first twin laughed. "'Course we can! Come with us." He set off, pushing his trolley, his twin behind him, and tossed over his shoulder "I'm Fred, by the way, and this is George." George waved backwards at us, and Ashleigh and I laughed: the twins seemed lovely.

"I'm Kes."

"I'm Ashleigh."

"Great, now we're all acquainted." George smiled back at us, "The platform's just over here." They led us over to a wall between platforms 9 and 10, where several redheaded children were clustered around a short woman, who looked rather flustered and was saying

"Where are Fred and George? Has anyone seen them?"

"Breathe, woman." Said Fred, "We're here."

"Oh, good. Where have you been?"

"Helping first years." George told her, nodding at Ashleigh and I. She seemed to notice us for the first time, and smiled kindly.

"Oh, is it your first time?"

We nodded, and Ashleigh added. "We can't find the platform."

"Well, don't worry. It's Ron's first time, too." She gestured to a small boy with shockingly bright hair and dirt on his nose, and then turned to an older looking boy, who seemed like his nose was permanently turned up. "All right Percy, you first."

The boy nodded, backed up with his trolley, paused, and then ran right at the wall. Ashleigh and I exchanged alarmed glances, and looked back just in time to see him disappear through the wall. "What?!"

The woman now turned to the twin named Fred. "Fred, you next." Fred's shorter twin, George, gestured at his brother. "He's not Fred, I am!"

I frowned and turned to Ashleigh, whispering "I could've sworn that was Fred."

Ashleigh grinned and whispered back "Well, they _are_ identical twins."

The one I had thought was Fred shook his head. "Honestly woman, you call yourself our mother."

The woman, his mother, shook her head. "Oh, I'm sorry George."

Fred, or rather George, made his way in front of the war, and then grinned "I'm only joking. I am Fred." He ran towards the wall and disappeared through it, closely followed by his twin.

At this point, a small boy with scruffy black hair came forward. "Excuse me, could- could you tell me... how to-"

"How to get onto the platform?" Fred and George's mother smiled "Yes, not to worry dear, it's Ron's first time too. And these girls didn't know either." She pointed at us, and the boy turned to smile at us, but stopped when he caught Ashleigh's eye. I looked back and forth between them a few times, and then cleared my throat pointedly. Both blinked and then turned away quickly, blushes colouring their cheeks. The twins' mother coughed. "Now all you've got to do is walk straight at the wall between platforms 9 and 10. Best do it at a bit of a run."

"Good luck." Added Ashleigh with a smile. The boy nodded, looking very pale, and then ran at the wall. Ashleigh flinched as he disappeared through it. Fred and George's mum turned to us with a smile.

"Your turn, girls."

We looked at each other. "You can go first." Ashleigh said, and I made a face.

"Fine." Swallowing hard, I backed into position, and then, closing my eyes, ran at the barrier. A moment later I was on a bustling platform, beside which a bright red train waited. All over the platform children ran about, yelling goodbyes to their parents and greeting friends. I stared around, open mouthed, and then someone grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side of the wall.

"Watch it!" I looked up to see the twin named George pointing behind me, where Ashleigh had just come running through the wall, straight into the place I had just been standing.

"Oh," I blushed and smiled at him "Thanks."

"No problem. You've gotta get used to that." He waved and disappeared off into the bustle. I waved back, and then turned, manoeuvring my trolley awkwardly, to stand beside Ashleigh, who was watching the black haired boy.

"Come on." I said quietly "We ought to get on the train." I nodded pointedly at my watch, which showed 10.57am. She agreed, and we navigated our way through the platform with difficulty, and, after a porter took our luggage, climbed onto the train. Unfortunately, there were no empty carriages. As the train set off, we walked up and down the train to no avail, looking into carriages for a space. Suddenly I stopped. "Look, Ashleigh, isn't that the boy from the platform? The one with dirt on his nose and twin brothers? And that's the scruffy black haired boy you were staring at."

Blushing, Ashleigh peered into the compartment. "Yeah, I think it is."

I pushed the door open and leaned in. The two were stuffing their faces with all kinds of strange looking sweets, and seemingly to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. Both boys jumped at the sound of the door, looking slightly scared, and then relaxed when they saw me.

"Oh, I thought it was that girl back again. The scary one."

I blinked. "Um, right. Can we sit with you? There aren't any empty compartments."

"Sure." The red haired boy patted the seat next to him. "I'm Ron Weasley, and this is Harry Potter." From the way he said it I'm sure he expected some sort of reaction from us, like this Harry Potter was famous or something. Instead, we smiled and introduced ourselves. Ron seemed a little disappointed by our incomprehension, but soon cheered up, offering me a 'Chocolate Frog' and then laughing at the look on my face when it jumped out of my hand. I didn't accept any more sweets after that. Ashleigh, meanwhile, was busy getting acquainted with Harry Potter. About halfway through the journey, the twins popped their heads in the door.

Fred, the taller one, spoke first. "Hey Ron. We promised mum we'd check on you."

"Yeah, wouldn't want you getting mortally injured before you get to Hogwarts."

"Although how you can mortally injure yourself on a train is a mystery."

"Anyway, we're being rude. We haven't introduced ourselves to Harry Potter over there."

"Right, this is Fred and I'm George."

"Oh," I piped up from the corner. "I thought you were Fred." I pointed to the one who'd just introduced himself as George. The twins' mouths dropped open.

"Blimey, Fred! She can tell us apart!"

"Even our own mother can't tell us apart!"

"Oh." I blushed "Sorry."

"Sorry?! This is bloody brilliant! How do you do it?"

"Um... well." I looked at Ashleigh for help, but she just shrugged – evidently she couldn't tell them apart. "I guess you look different."

The twins looked at each other, and then back at me, and then back at each other again. "Wow." I blushed as they both stepped forward, one by one, and solemnly shook my hand. "You have officially impressed us." They left as quickly as they'd arrived, still marvelling over the fact that I could tell them apart.

The door closed behind them in silence, and then Ron said "I think you're the only one in the whole world who can tell them apart." As I laughed and shook my head, he continued seriously. "No, really! Even our parents can't. Sometimes I wonder if they can tell themselves apart."

I grinned at him. "They don't look _that_ similar."

Ashleigh raised an eyebrow. "In case you haven't noticed, they're identical twins."

"They looked pretty similar to me." Added Harry from the corner. We were still arguing over it when we reached Hogwarts.

The next few minutes passed in a dizzying swirl of fear and anticipation, and then it was our turn to be, as Ron had kindly explained on the train, Sorted. We filed into the Great Hall in petrified silence, and I was about to die of terror when George caught my eye and shot me a comforting smile, Fred adding a thumbs up at his side. I smiled weakly back at them and waited to be sorted. First Ron, then Harry, was placed into a house named 'Gryffindor' which George and Fred also seemed to be in. Ashleigh was just before me. She went up to the Sorting Hat and sat there for only a few seconds until the hat declared loudly "Gryffindor!" Now, of course, all I wanted was to be in Gryffindor. My name was called, and I walked up the steps towards the hat. Just as I got there, I tripped over the top step and fell flat on my face in front of the entire school. I felt the blood rush to my face as the hall roared with laughter, and pulled myself to my feet, mortified. Then, in one of my crazy but surprisingly brave moments, I turned back to face the school and beamed at them. Then I sat down on the stool. Terrifying minutes passed in which the hat on my head deliberated between a house named 'Ravenclaw' which would apparently suit my "intellectualness" and 'Gryffindor'. I begged it silently, but it must have heard me for, after a minute, it called loudly "Gryffindor!"

Grinning so widely I thought I'd split my face in half, I went to sit clumsily between Ashleigh, who had Harry on her other side, and Fred. As the Sorting was finished and we all began to chatter loudly, I realised I'd never felt happier than I had at that moment. Clearly, this was where Ashleigh and I belonged, and we would be here for the next seven years. Hogwarts would become home.

**_Soo... like it? _**

**_R&R?_**

**_- Kes and Ashleigh_**


	2. Kes: Three summers' pride

_**Yep, next chapter up. **_

**_Disclaimer: We are not J.K. Rowling_**

**_Chapter 1: Three summers' pride, three beauteous springs_**

_Kes POV_

In our first year at Hogwarts, we took part in our first flying lesson, learnt how to turn animals into goblets and befriended a half giant. His name was Hagrid, and he was the groundkeeper and 'Care of Magical Creatures' teacher. Ashleigh and I thoroughly enjoyed this lesson, having never seen any magical creatures before, and Hagrid liked us due to our friendship with Harry. Yes, we had become quite close to him and Ron, what with being in the same house. Having met on the train, we quickly feel into an easy friendship. Ashleigh and I, however, remained particularly close, and Harry and Ron, being boys, spent more time in each others' company than they did in ours.

Also, rather surprisingly, they had become friends with the "scary girl" from the train, who was named, rather oddly, Hermione, and being Muggleborn was in the same boat as Ashleigh and I. I liked her, and so did Ashleigh, although she thought her a bit of a know-it-all, but after Harry and Ron's original aversion to her, we could not understand their sudden friendship. Until, that is, they explained to us about Fluffy and the Chamber of Secrets: there are some things you can't live through without becoming the best of friends.

In our first Summer holiday, Ashleigh and I kept in contact with Harry, Ron and Hermione through letters dispatched by Starbuck. I even received the occasional letter from Fred and George, though I suspected it was George who'd written them. We kept this up for several months until, one day in mid August, I walked into the village to post a letter to my Granny and bumped into Ron's little sister Ginny. Turns out the Weasleys lived 10 minutes walk from the village Ashleigh and I had grown up in.

The rest of that summer we spent hanging out with Ron, Fred, George and Ginny. Their mum, Mrs. Weasley, was just as kind as she'd been on the platform, and practically adopted us: insisting on us staying for tea or lunch or whatever meal she happened to be making at that point. The Weasleys also made a point of inviting mine and Ashleigh's parents round often, with ever amusing results. Our parents were not yet used to the whole magic thing, although hers were taking it better than mine. I was having a great time, but Ashleigh missed Harry a lot: during our first year a shy liking had developed between the two. I was comforting her about this one time when she was particularly down, having just received one of Harry's extensively scrawled letters, when Fred and George came in.

"We've decided to make your day, haven't we George?"

"That we have Fred."

"We're going to break Harry out."

"With the help of Dad's car, that is."

"And then bring him back here."

"We figured the poor kid could do with a break,"

"And with some of Mum's cooking."

"Besides, mum's always saying Ron should bring him here for the holidays."

"I just don't think she pictured it like this."

Ashleigh ran at them and hugged first George, who was closest to her, and then Fred. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She jumped up and down on the spot, giggling, as Fred extricated himself from her and shrugged. "It was Ron's idea."

"Ron!" Ashleigh ran out of the room, evidently to find and hug Ron, and I smiled at the twins.

"Thanks, really. This means a lot to her."

The twins shrugged identically and George grinned. "We've always wanted an excuse to try out Dad's car."

I hadn't realised, at that point, that it flew.

In our second year at Hogwarts we were joined by Ginny, who was Sorted into Gryffindor, and immediately took this opportunity to flirt with Harry, something which her brothers found amusing, Harry found embarrassing and Ashleigh hated: she was worried that Ginny's efforts would pay off. Ashleigh had had it bad for Harry since we'd first met him at King's Cross, and this hadn't changed in the slightest. We also had a new DADA teacher, seeing as our first one had apparently had Voldemort stuck to the back of his head, but this one was unbearable. Professor Lockhart, he was called, and Hermione and Ginny revered him. Somehow, Ashleigh, the boys and I didn't feel the same way: the guy was a idiot, and worse, he was a bigheaded idiot. What's more, he was a terrible teacher.

The second year was terrifying, what with all of the attacks, especially on Muggleborns, and we were always told not to walk around school on our own, not to linger between classes and overall, not to leave our common rooms after curfew. Then, Hermione was attacked. This, of course, was a terrible blow to all of us, and we barely dared to leave our dorms after that. Although Harry, of course, was dead set on getting to the bottom of it all. It was halfway through this horrible chain of events that Ashleigh's unusual gift made its first appearance. We were sat in the school library, struggling valiantly with our potions homework but getting distracted every few minutes and kept ending up chatting instead. Ashleigh was halfway through a sentence about Harry when something really weird happened.

"I just don't know what to do, I mean, he's just so-" She stopped talking abruptly and froze, staring blankly over my left shoulder. I waved my hand in front of her face.

"Ashleigh... Earth to Ashleigh. Anyone there?" When she didn't snap about of it even then I began to panic. "Ashleigh!" I shook her shoulders gently. "Ashleigh! Seriously, this isn't funny!" And then, just as I was about to run for Madame Pomfrey, she blinked, shook her head as though to clear it, and then looked at me. "Ashleigh!" I let go of her shoulders. "What the hell just happened?!"

"I don't know." She looked scared. "But I just saw... I saw..." Her bottom lip trembled. "Oh God, it was horrible. I saw Harry, and he was... dying!"

I stared at her. "You're saying that you had... what, a vision? Of Harry _dying_?!" She nodded, and I frowned. "Right, what exactly did you see?"

"There was a huge snake, and then Harry killed it, but it bit him first, and Ginny was there too, but then Harry was..." She trailed off, unable to finish, and dissolved into tears.

I stood up and took her arm. "Come on, we're going to see Professor Dumbledore."

We both ran down the corridor, turned a couple of corners and then raced up three flights of stairs before skidding to a halt before the stone gargoyle.

"Password?" It enquired in a bored voice.

"Um..." We looked at each other helplessly. "I'm sorry, we don't know. But we really need to see Professor Dumbledore."

"I'm afraid Professor Dumbledore is no longer in Hogwarts." We spun around to see Professor McGonagall stood behind us. "What is so urgent?"

"Well..." Somehow I felt awkward explaining about Ashleigh's vision to Professor McGonagall as I wouldn't have done explaining to Dumbledore. "Ashleigh had a, um, a vision."

"A vision?"

"Yeah. A vision of Harry dying."

"Harry? Harry Potter?!"

"Yes."

"What exactly did you see, Miss Skelhorn?"

"Well, um, there was a huge snake, and lots of water. It looked like it was underground, and there was blood. The snake bit Harry, and he was clutching his arm, and then he just... dropped to the ground." She repressed a sob. "Oh, and Ginny was there as well."

All of the blood left Professor McGonagall's face. "Ginny Weasley?" Ashleigh nodded. "Right. You'd best come with me." She set off along the corridor, leading us down a flight of stairs to the second floor. Several teachers, including Madame Pomfrey and Snape, were clustered around in front of a wall, upon which was written in a hideous red scrawl '_Her Skeleton will lie in the chamber forever'_

"Oh my God." I stared blankly at the letters on the wall: this couldn't be real. Ginny Weasley, dead? "Is she...?"

"We don't know, but we hope not."

"Where's Harry?" Ashleigh asked quietly, and Professor McGonagall sighed.

"I'm afraid we don't know."

It is a very very god job that neither Ashleigh nor myself knew where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was, because, had she had even the faintest inkling, Ashleigh would have been down there, all guns blazing, ready to kick the ass of whoever dared to hurt Harry. The next few hours were terrifying. Fred, George and Percy were called to McGonagall's office, Ron having disappeared along with Harry. We all sat in deathly silence in the hard seats, waiting for any news whatsoever. I reached out and silently squeezed Ashleigh's hand. She looked up at me through teary eyes and managed a watery smile. On her other side George opened his mouth to say something, but never got the chance for, at that moment, Dumbledore strode in. And behind him, looking slightly dusty but nevertheless healthy, came none other than Ron, Ginny and-

"HARRY!" Ashleigh leapt from her seat and ran into his arms, almost knocking him over. "Thank God you're alright! You are alright?" She leant back, looking anxiously at him.

He laughed. "I'm fine, Ashleigh."

"Good." She hugged him again.

This vision was the first of many. Dumbledore told Ashleigh that her great great grandma had, in fact, gone to Hogwarts also, and had been blessed with visions as well. "You are a Seer." He told her kindly, when she asked in a panicky voice why the hell she could see the future. "It is a very powerful gift, do not take it likely." Neither of us knew it at the time, but he was right.

In our third year, we had the best teacher we've ever had. Shame he turned out to be a werewolf. Professor Remus Lupin was, in a word, fantastic. It was in this year, as well, that we were first allowed into Hogsmeade, which was a lot of fun. Also, Fred and George bestowed their precious Marauders' Map upon Harry, saying that they knew it off by heart anyway. Nothing much exciting happened to Ashleigh and I that year, but Harry, Ron and Hermione filled Fred, George, Ashleigh and I in afterwards. We learnt all about his godfather, Sirius, and Peter Pettigrew's betrayal. We learnt about Snape's history with Harry's father; and Harry got a new broom.

Overall, our first three years at Hogwarts were eventful, to say the least, but it was really in the fourth year that things started to get interesting. And what a year it would be: the Quidditch World Cup, the Triwizard Tournament and the return of Voldemort. Everything was going to change.

_**R&R?**_

_**- Ashleigh and Kes**_


	3. Ashleigh: Summer Days Driftin' Away

_**Next chapter...**_

_**Disclaimer: We don't own any of it...apart from Kes and Ashleigh cos we are them...**_

_**Chapter 2: Summer Days Driftin' Away**_

_Ashleigh POV_

When summer started, I couldn't believe that we'd been at Hogwarts for three years. The best three years of my life. Kes and I had met some amazing people (and some not-so-amazing ones - Malfoy) who had made the incredible world we had been thrown into that bit easier to adjust to.

Our parents however, were another story. Mine were coping slightly better than Kes', and were happy to let me spend practically every waking moment at the Burrow but still looked slightly freaked out if I ever talked about magical things. I had it easy compared to Kes though. Her parents, especially her mum, were still totally hysterical about the whole thing. They had also made it clear they wanted her to stay at home during the holidays, and although their excuse of "But we miss you so much during the school year, we want to see you whilst you're here" seemed perfectly credible, the way they acted around the Weasleys, slightly suspicious, maybe even fearful, showed that they simply didn't want her around them any more than necessary.

However, they always lost that particular argument and so the summer months saw her and me at the Burrow almost every single day. Due to the boys' love of Quidditch, we spent hours and hours playing in a field surrounded by trees to provide cover. Needless to say, Kes wasn't too impressed as putting her on a broomstick was definitely not the cleverest of moves. After several months of initial unsteadiness in first year, I had become a fairly competent flyer.

We always split into two teams of four: Fred, George, Kes and me against Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Harry. Surprisingly, we didn't always lose, mainly down to the fact that Hermione was only marginally better at flying than Kes.

There was an extremely amusing incident one day, which only helped confirm suspicions I'd had for a while. We were losing very badly, and in a desperate effort to take out Harry, who was their best player by a mile, Kes sped towards him, totally forgetting that he had a Firebolt and therefore could probably go faster than the rest of us put together. Taking out the opposite team's star player was really her only use in Quidditch. Apart from amusement purposes of course. Harry shot up five feet to avoid her, leaving her a clear path to crash into George, who didn't have a reaction time or a broom as quick as Harry's and could only widen his eyes as Kes, unable to stop herself in time, crashed straight into him. I caught Fred's eye and we both smirked as Kes landed on top of George and jumped up far too quickly, her cheeks flaming.

I'd seen hints of it before, just small things in the way she acted around him, the things she said. Kes fancied George. The way she'd just leapt up off him like she'd fallen onto hot coals proved that, if I was her, George and I would have been lay on the floor laughing for at least five minutes. Her reaction was what I would have done if I'd landed on top of Harry like that.

Harry. The only problem in my life right now. As I'd got older, my feelings for him increased but he didn't feel the same, I was sure of it. Sure, we flirted and made amusing comments to each other, but it was just a game to him. Kes didn't think so, she was convinced that he liked me too, but I wasn't about to take any chances and make a complete prat of myself. I'd rather keep what we had now. We'd become such close friends, I didn't want to taint that friendship with the awkwardness that would inevitably come after such a conversation. I glanced at him, he had landed and was pulling George to his feet and I caught part of George's comment about Firebolts and Harry's answering laugh. My stomach did little flips at the sound and I turned my broom sharply and, seriously annoyed with myself, flew to the other side of the field to laugh about Kes with Fred.

That night Kes was sleeping over at my house and I had a confrontation about the George incident all prepared in my head.

"Soooo," I began casually. "It was so funny earlier when you flew into George wasn't it?"

She looked at the cup of tea in her hands, avoiding my eyes. "Funny? Um, I'd say more painful than funny."

"Painful?" I smirked. "You landed on top of him didn't you? Surely he's not that uncomfortable...not that I actually expect you to know that, you jumped off him that quickly."

I could see the blush creeping up her face, even though she was trying her best to hide it behind her hair.

"Well, anyone would! I didn't know if I'd hurt him, and I, um -"

"Riiiight. Cos there was clearly something wrong with just rolling off him rather than making it look like he was made of broken glass!"

"I didn't think of that! I just thought it would be better for him if I just got off him."

"Better for him...? So you wouldn't have minded stayed there," I commented in a rather suggestive tone.

Kes gave me one of her unimpressed looks. "I didn't mean that."

"Okay," I grinned. "You sure there's not something you wanna tell me Kes?"

"Positive," she answered, just a second too soon. I sighed, deciding to let the matter drop until something else I could tease her about occurred. It was completely obvious she liked George, whether she was willing to admit it to me or not. Looking at the colour of her face, I decided that a subject change would also be good for her health; having that much blood in your head couldn't be good for you. She was apparently thinking along the same lines as she started to speak just before me, clearly trying to distract me. I let her, whilst scheduling a planning session with Fred the following day.

"So I saw the look you were giving Harry earlier," she was saying. "You looked kinda sad...and angry. What's happened?"

I sighed, closing my eyes and hugging a pillow to my chest. "Nothing. He's not done anything. I'm angry with myself, there's something in me that won't let me get over him although I know perfectly well that nothing's ever gonna happen between us." I paused and leaned my head back against the wall. "I'm not good enough for him," I added quietly.

"Hey! Don't you go saying that!" Kes tapped my arm and I tore my gaze away from the ceiling to look at her. "He obviously likes you but he thinks you don't like him because he's nothing but a blind jerk!"

I let out a half-hearted laugh at that. "I doubt it. I mean, why would he like me? He famous Harry Potter and I'm the most ordinary person you could find. I used to think maybe he did but that was like two years ago."

Kes looked slightly surprised by my attitude; I was normally a happy, bubbly person who didn't appear to have a care in the world.

"Ordinary? Ashleigh, you're a Seer! That's not ordinary! And you're a proper one, not like Trelawney. And you're funny, and clever, and can I just point out that he gets totally freaked out by Ginny's flirting but he really doesn't mind when you do it."

"I doubt he thinks I'm clever when he hangs out with Hermione all the time," I muttered.

"Oh come on Ashleigh, you know what I mean. And don't you dare go getting all self-doubting on me! You rock! Apart from Transfiguration, you get good grades in everything. And I doubt Harry minds being around when you're attempting Transfiguration cos we always end up having a good laugh at how wrong you manage to go. I mean, remember the turning the animals into water goblets incident? I've never seen him laugh so much. So you know, it's extremely unlikely that he cares about that. Nobody's perfect. But I'll bet you anything he does like you."

An unwilling smile was spreading across my face at the mention of the changing animals to water goblets incident. To be fair, I'd managed the right spell for once, but I'd just missed Starbuck. So Ron turned into a water goblet.

"I'm being stupid aren't I?" I said, still trying not to laugh about Ron the water goblet.

"Just a bit. You know what I think?"

"Go on..."

"By the end of this year, you two are going to be together."

"I wish! Look, you're not gonna convince me, but I'll try and cheer up. Thanks."

Kes smiled. "What are best friends for?"

I smiled back. "For moaning at cos it's guaranteed they'll always make you feel better."

After that, I spent even longer watching Harry, trying to figure out if Kes was right. A fact that was not lost on Fred, who delightedly declared me 'Potter-obsessed' right before I whacked him on the head due to Harry being within hearing distance.

_**R&R?**_

_**- Ashleigh and Kes**_


	4. Ashleigh: Watch The World Come Alive

_**Next chapter...**_

_**Chapter 4: Watch The World Come Alive Tonight**_

Soon, however, we discovered that our happy days filled with Quidditch and other various games (Kes, Harry, Hermione and I had introduced the Weasleys to the wonder that is hide and seek) were to be interrupted. We were informed one evening by a very excited Ginny that we would be leaving in two days time for the final of the Quidditch World Cup! It was Ireland versus Bulgaria, and I had no idea who I wanted to win, having no particular preference for either country. Kes was supporting Ireland along with most of the Weasleys but Ron appeared to be in love with the Bulgarian Seeker, Viktor Krum, and was therefore supporting them. Harry seemed to be agreeing with Ron, but none of us were really sure why.

The World Cup had also led to the arrival of the two eldest Weasley brothers, Bill and Charlie. Charlie and I got on really well, and Bill was really nice, but I found him slightly intimidating. I think it was the fang in his ear; it just freaked me out a bit.

The day after, we were informed of the horrifically early time we had to get up in order to catch the Portkey. Kes and I exchanged horrified glances; 3am was not even in our vocabulary! We also felt a certain amount of trepidation about the aforementioned Portkey given that neither we nor Harry knew what one was and that no-one was being kind enough to enlighten us.

So after a grand total of three hours of sleep due to us sharing a room with Ginny and Hermione and chatting until about midnight we dragged ourselves, moaning loudly, out of bed and into our clothes.

I managed to embarrass myself on the way into breakfast; as I wandered into the kitchen, the smell of food, coffee and tea woke me a little and I quickened my pace to get to the table in order to get some of the caffeine into my system. However, being as focused as I was on getting across the room, I failed to notice where I was walking and smacked straight into Harry and ended up on the floor.

"Oh God, sorry Ashleigh," he said, holding his hand out to pull me up. Too tired to bother getting up on my own, even if it did mean having to use some form of self –control whilst holding Harry's hand, I reached out and let him drag me up. Okay. Bearable. That was good. What I wasn't counting on was him then putting his arm round my waist and supporting me across the kitchen to a chair. I really hope he didn't realise that my inability to walk properly was no longer totally to do with fatigue or see the red that I could feel making its way into my cheeks.

"Thanks Harry," I mumbled as he moved off before grabbing the pot of tea and drinking as much as was humanly possible in the short space of time I had.

At 4am we set off on was what apparently an hour-long walk. Our Portkey left at 5.07 and we had to meet a couple of other people along the way. I was feeling pretty asleep as I trudged through a wood that I wasn't even aware was near my house and was therefore giving one word answers whenever anyone spoke to me. That may have been why everyone was avoiding me. Kes was slightly ahead of me, walking between Fred and George, who were wearing what had to be the most hideous pairs of trousers in existence. They were bright orange and clashed very badly with their hair. I decided to avoid looking at them until my head could handle something that bright. The only other person walking alone was Harry, and I felt obliged to go and talk to him but as I gladly found out, he had been left alone for the same reason as me so we walked along together in comfortable silence.

Soon after, I heard Mr Weasley shout something and everyone ahead came to a halt. I looked wearily over everybody's heads to see him talking to a rather short man called Amos Diggory. Mr Weasley enquired after someone named Cedric and seconds later, a tall, handsome guy who I vaguely recognised from his being on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team dropped out of a tree to land next to his father.

"He totally fell out of that tree," I heard Kes mutter to George.

I saw Hermione and Ginny exchange impressed looks about this newcomer. Kes turned to catch my eye and I looked pointedly in Cedric's direction and nodded approvingly. She sighed and shook her head at me.

"Nice to see that something's finally woken you up," she smirked at me.

I grinned back. "I am nothing if not able to appreciate the male form Kes, you know that."

After another long walk during which Cedric had to suffer the glares of Fred and George for beating us in the Quidditch match when Harry fainted because of the Dementors, we finally reached Stoatshead Hill. Mr Weasley told us all to split up and look for an object that looked like "something you'd put in the trash".

Bemused, Kes and I began to wander around the hill but we hadn't got far when a now-familiar feeling overtook me and I froze, my eyes no longer seeing what was in front of me.

_Screaming, shouting, people in masks laughing. Fire, running, Muggles floating in the air. Then quiet...too quiet. A shouted spell from within a dark forest, a green shape in the sky, horrified expressions. Then more screaming than before. More running. Panic. I was struggling, but I couldn't see who was pulling me away. Were they taking me to safety? Or were they some of the masked people from before. I screamed, desperate to get back to where we were leaving. "HARRY!!"_

"Ashleigh! Ashleigh! It's ok, everything's fine, Harry's fine." Kes was knelt beside me, although I didn't remember falling. I must've shouted out loud, although that didn't often happen. "What did you see?"

I sat trying to slow my breathing for a minute before answering. "Um, well, something's going to happen later. Something bad. There were people running and shouting and screaming. So much screaming." I realised I was shaking.

"And Harry?"

"I don't know. I didn't, I couldn't -" I could feel my breathing changing to sobs and Kes, looking worried, put her arm round me until I calmed slightly. I took a deep breath before I started to speak again. "I was being dragged off backwards...Harry was somewhere in the other direction. And I don't know who had hold of me."

"Should we tell Mr Weasley dya think?"

"I don't know. I mean, he doesn't know about me does he? And -"

We were cut off from a shout from Ginny round the other side of the hill.

"I've found something!"

"This must be it!" we heard Mr Weasley shout a minute later. "Come on everyone, it's about to go!"

Kes and I got there last and therefore couldn't see what it was that everyone was crowded round. Harry was stood back a little, asking why everyone was crowding round "that dirty old boot". Looking worriedly at one another we went over to Harry who was looking just as confused as us.

After being told to touch the boot, Kes and I exchanged sceptical glances; there was no space left round it and we couldn't reach it from where we were. Mr Weasley glanced at his watch. "Three...two..."

Hermione looked at us from across the boot. "You two touch it!"

"One!" Mr Weasley finished his countdown.

Without thinking, I threw my arms round the thing nearest to me, which just happened to be Harry's chest, and held on tightly. Kes followed my lead and grabbed George's foot just as the Portkey was activated. We all let out screams as we were whisked away into the morning air. I pressed my face into Harry so I couldn't see – I'd never been very fond of heights. I could only imagine how Kes must feel dangling off George's foot, assuming that she hadn't fallen off that was. I wouldn't put it past her.

I heard Mr Weasley shout something then panicked as I felt Harry start falling, and I was slipping down him and I realised that I was no longer against his back, I must've managed to somehow slide round him and now my face was in an extremely inappropriate place. He grabbed hold of my arms and pulled me back up against his chest just before he hit the ground. I was extremely glad I hadn't stayed against his back, even if I wasn't too sure how I'd ended up against his front.

I lay there for I minute before my totally freaked out brain managed to get a message through: "_You are on top of Harry. MOVE!_"

I didn't quite achieve the impressive backwards leap off George that Kes had done due to my lack of sleep but I did pull off I very high pitched "Oh my God sorry!" as I scrambled off him. I looked around to check that Kes had made it all way and, thankfully, saw her standing about 10 feet away looking at me with her eyebrows raised. She looked down pointedly and I realised that seeing as Harry was still on the floor, I should help him up.

Before I could, someone behind me had offered him their hand and pulled him up. I turned to find Cedric Diggory standing there looking amused. Not sure what to say, I just looked up at him, trying to stifle a yawn and failing.

"Didn't think you'd be able to manage him," he explained, nodding towards Harry.

In my sleep-deprived state, I could only stare at him. "What?"

"Well you've looked kinda like a zombie since I saw you, so I think picking him up might have been a bit much for you."

"Well thanks!" He may have been right, but I didn't appreciate being called a zombie. I was confused though, as to why no-one else seemed quite as tired as me. Even Kes, who was even less of a morning person than me, seemed ok.

We set off on yet more walking to find our tent and when we did Kes and I simply stopped dead. It was the size of a two person tent, and even without Cedric and Amos, who had gone to another camp site, there wasn't a chance we were all gonna fit in it. No-one else seemed to have a problem with it so after a confused glance, we followed Harry in.

It was the size of a tennis court. I stood with my mouth hanging open as I looked round. Finally my gaze landed on the beds and I moved towards them like there was some kind of magnetic force pulling me there. As I reached the nearest one, I shoved Ron, who was about to take it, out of the way and climbed in, muttering something incoherent about heaven.

I was shaken awake later by Kes who informed me that it was now five o'clock.

"What time did we get here?" I asked. It must have been a while ago as I felt very wide awake.

"You've been asleep since about six."

Wow. Eleven hours. I never slept that long.

"Can you believe how they made us get here?!" Kes was now saying. "I mean, I was hanging off George's _foot_!"

I grinned at her. "Well, I guess it's a good job he's got big feet then..."

Kes went bright red and stalked off. I laughed, shaking my head as I got up and stretched, then ambled over to the kitchen to locate something edible. What I found, however, was a lot of green, white, black and red paint and Hermione attempting to get Ron to stay still whilst she painted him.

"Oh, hey Ashleigh," she smiled. "Finally back in the land of the living then?"

I laughed. "Yeah...and feeling a hell of a lot better now."

"Do you want to do Harry?"

I froze. "Um, do I what?" I glanced at Kes who was stood near a sofa with Fred and George but had clearly heard as she was trying to suppress her laughter.

"His face paint," she said, apparently not noticing anything strange in my expression. "He wants Bulgarian." She chucked two tubs of paint at me, a red and a black.

"Oh!" I breathed a sigh of relief. "Yeah, sure. And...hey Kes, why don't you do George?"

George obviously hadn't being paying any attention to what had been said as his head shot up and his eyes were wider than I'd ever seen them. Kes glared at me and I smirked at her as Fred said brightly: "Don't worry George, we all know you want her to..." Fred caught my eye and we both started laughing.

"Oh shut up and do Harry will you," Kes said.

I turned back to Harry who was sat in front of me. "It'll be my pleasure," I said and winked at him. I was always surprised that I was able to say things like that to him, but I think being with him is easier when I'm flirting so obviously or being all suggestive. God only knows why. My head is messed up...

"Is there something going on between those two?" Harry whispered.

"Not yet," I murmured back, trying not to make it look like we were gossiping. "I'm pretty sure Kes wants there to be though. She's denying it though."

We continued whispering about Kes and George which was quite helpful really, as I was able to distract myself from my hands on Harry's face. It was worse when we swapped though. I ended up sat on my hands to make sure I didn't do anything I would regret. When he'd finished, Harry leaned back, one eyebrow raised, and silently handed me a mirror.

"Nice!" I grinned at him. "What dya think?"

"It kinda clashes," Kes laughed from next to me.

"Woah! Since when have you been there?" She shook her head at me and my complete lack of observation.

"Yeah, she's right," Harry commented. "You totally clash."

"Thanks!" They were both right, as I couldn't decide which team to support, I had one half of my face red and black and the other half green and white. I had none of the merchandise that the others had due to my being dead to the world for the entire day so, taking pity on me, Kes gave my one of her dancing shamrocks, which she had for some reason named John, Paul, George and Ringo, (I ended up with Paul) and Harry donated a Bulgarian scarf. Kes then took great delight in showing me her Guinness hat, but she refused to tell me where she'd got it.

When it was time to go, I realised with a jolt that I hadn't had a chance to speak to Mr Weasley about what I'd Seen. On one hand, I supposed it was a good thing as I didn't know what I would've said, but I did feel quite apprehensive as we made our way through the wood that I recognised as the place from where the spell that freaked everyone out would be cast.

When we got to the stadium, all thoughts of security were driven from my mind. Kes and I gazed in awe at the sight before us. The stadium was bigger than any place I'd ever seen before and the very walls seemed to glow with a soft golden light.

"That's beautiful," I breathed at the same time Kes whispered "Wow..."

Walking to our seats (which, typically, were right at the top) we encountered the delight that is Draco Malfoy who boasted loudly that he and his father were in the Minister's box by personal invitation. We spent the rest of the long climb discussing various curses and pranks we could use on him. My favourite was definitely one that Kes came up with: turn his hair black, draw a lightning bolt on his forehead and call him "Oh Mighty Chosen One".

Eventually we reached the top, and they really were the best seats in the entire stadium. We had an uninterrupted view and I was just admiring again the way the walls gave out the golden light when the Irish team zoomed on over our heads, almost knocking off Kes' Guinness hat. They created a dancing leprechaun in the sky and Kes was just saying how cute it was when the Bulgarians flew right through it, making it shatter into a million sparkles. Ron started jumping around and yelling about Krum, whilst Kes looked scandalised at the destruction of the leprechaun.

Fudge welcomed us all to the match then released the Snitch, seemingly from the end of his wand. I'd never seen Quidditch like it. The Chasers on each team worked together flawlessly and scored the opening goal within seconds. The match didn't last that long, apparently it went on for five days last year, and it ended very surprisingly with Krum getting the Snitch but Ireland still winning.

Back at the tent, everyone was laughing as Ron went on and on about Krum, saying he was like "a bird the way he flies" and various other things whilst Fred and George attacked him with an Irish flag.

"I think you're in love Ron..." Ginny smirked at him.

Fred and George seemed to take this as a cue for a song.

"Viktor I love you..." Fred began.

"Viktor I dooooo..." George continued.

"When we're apart, my heart beats only for you..." they finished together. Harry decided to join in at this point and I made a mental note to never get him to sing again.

There was a lot of noise coming from outside the tent and as Fred commented on it, Mr Weasley came rushing in in a state of great agitation, herding us all out of the tent and telling us to get back to the Portkey.

I exchanged a horrified glance with Kes; this was the scene from my vision earlier. Everyone around us was screaming and shouting, and across the campsite, masked men were laughing whilst dangling four Muggles high in the air above them. They were blasting their way through the camp site, setting fire to everything they passed.

The older Weasleys Disapperated with their father to help the other Ministry wizards and security people, leaving Fred, George, Ginny, Hermione, Ron, Harry, Kes and I to get safely away from the tent and back to where we'd arrived.

The Ministry had obviously managed to overpower the wizards in masks as it suddenly went quiet and the Muggles disappeared from the sky. But it was too quiet. I looked towards the woods, knowing what came next. A deep voice shouted an unfamiliar incantation and then a green skull with a snake protruding from its mouth flared up brightly in the sky.

The screams restarted and I felt someone pulling on my arm. "We have to go!" Kes was shouting. We started back towards the clearing we had arrived in but I noticed that Harry was not with us. I turned back and saw him moving in the opposite direction, but before I could run after him, Fred and George grabbed one of my arms each and began to drag me backwards. I screamed, fighting to get free.

"We have to stick together Ashleigh!"

"HARRY!!!! Let me go! Fred, George, get off me, I swear to God, if you don't get your hands off me RIGHT NOW -"

"Ashleigh!" Fred was speaking in my ear. "Calm down! We have to get away!"

"But Harry's not with us! We can't leave him!"

My struggling proved pointless as the twins were stronger than me, and with two of them dragging me back, there was no way. I gave up fighting and allowed them to pull me along with them. When we arrived at the space where we were meeting Mr Weasley and the others to take the Portkey home, everyone seemed shocked to see the tears that were running down my face once Fred and George released me.

"Ashleigh what's the matter?" Fred asked. How oblivious were they?!

"You made me leave him!!!" I screamed at him. "He could be dead!! And you made me _leave him_!" George tried to give me a hug to calm me down but I wasn't thinking straight and as he got within reach I slapped him then turned on Fred. He started trying to back away but I wasn't having any of that so I strode forward and whacked him as well.

Ron looked pretty scared of me at that point. "Remind me to never get on your bad side!"

"I'm going back." I looked around to see if anyone was going to challenge me.

Kes looked at me from her inspection of one of the twins (I assumed George) and opened her mouth to say something when something behind me made her pause.

"No need," she told me a second later. "He's -"

"No need?! Kes, we don't know what's happened to him, I need to find him and we are _not_ leaving without him!"

"You wouldn't be talking about me now would you?" came a familiar voice from behind me.

I spun round. "Harry!" I ran at him and threw my arms round his neck. "Oh my God, I thought you were dead or something!"

He laughed and shook his head, but didn't push me off him. "You worry too much. I kinda got knocked out and when I woke up a load of Ministry people were accusing me of putting Voldemort's mark in the sky then Ron's dad came and got me and brought me back here. He'll be back in a couple of minutes to get us back to the Burrow."

"Won't we end up back on that stupid hill miles away?" Kes asked.

"Apparently he's gone to reset the location or something, I didn't really get what was going on...but we'll be able to go soon. Ashleigh, I'm honestly fine, don't worry!" he added when I still hadn't let go of him.

I pulled back and smiled at him sheepishly. "Sorry...I was just panicking and, well, I thought..." I trailed off and looked at the floor before turning to Fred and George. "I'm so sorry you two...I wasn't really thinking straight..."

The twin I think was Fred looked at the other and sighed. "I suppose we can let you off...just this once."

"What did she do?" Harry was looking rather confused.

"I think Harry needs to be taught how to control his woman, Fred," said George.

"Hey! I'm not his woman!"

Everyone ignored me and proceeded to tell Harry in the most exaggerated way possible how I had tried to get back to him then slapped both the twins. He seemed to find it all rather amusing, especially when Ron told him that if he ever annoyed me, he should run away fast because it had looked painful.

It was only when we were safely back at the Burrow that Harry pulled me to one side.

"Thank you." I must've looked confused as he continued. "For trying to come after me. And planning to go back for me."

I smiled. "No problem, I'm sure I'm not the only one who would've."

"But you're the one who did. And, well, I'm glad it was you." He smiled at me then went to sit with Ron who was listening to Fred and George give what was apparently a 'defend yourself from crazy girls' lesson.

I was left stood alone with my rather confused thoughts about Harry's feelings for me. Could Kes be right?

_**R&R?**_

_**- Ashleigh and Kes**_


	5. Kes: Note on intellectuals

_**Title is from W.H. Auden's poem, and refers to the fact that we are NOT intellectuals. :) **_

**_Disclaimer: Seeing as Ashleigh forgot disclaimers, we ought to clarify: WE DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER (otherwise it would bear a startling resemblance to this)_**

_**Chapter 4**_**: Note on Intellectuals**

For the first time since I'd started at Hogwarts, the holidays seemed to end too quickly. Ashleigh and I had spent the majority of the summer at the Weasleys' house, not that our parents were too pleased about this, and had become increasingly closer to all of them. Harry and Ashleigh in particular had become closer, what with Harry spending half of the summer at the Weasleys', along with Hermione. Since the Quidditch World Cup we'd spend most of our time teasing Ron with Fred and George's 'Viktor I love you' song, and playing four a side Quidditch in the field behind the Burrow.

Early September found us crowded into a compartment on the train to Hogwarts. Hermione was reading a newspaper, a disgruntled look on her face, Ron was staring blankly at a book open on his lap and Ashleigh, Harry and I were playing Wizards' Snap. My cat Mouse was trying to play as well, and Starbuck and Hedwig seemed to be having a strange sort of owl conversation. The lady with the trolley came along, and Harry went out with Ron to buy something. To my surprise, he didn't buy anything, instead standing there and watching Cho Chang, who was flirting with him shamelessly. Thankfully Ashleigh hadn't noticed, and I didn't get chance to confront him about it because, as soon as he returned to the compartment, Hermione began to talk angrily about the newspaper.

"This is horrible. How can the ministry not know who conjured it? Wasn't there any security or..."

"Loads." Ron answered through a mouthful of food – that boy never did learn any manners. "According to Dad. That's what worried them so much. Happened right under their noses."

Harry scratched his scar not so subtly. Ashleigh turned to him in concern, and Hermione said "It's hurting again, isn't it?" I repressed the urge to say 'well done, queen of the obvious' and she continued to clarify. "Your scar."

Harry shook his head and denied it. Stubborn boy. "I'm fine."

Hermione lent forward "You know Sirius will want to hear about this. What you saw at the world cup and the dream."

Under Hermione and Ashleigh's encouragement, Harry decided not to waste any time, and sent Hedwig with a letter while we were on the train. Nothing interesting happened after that, and eventually I got bored and, taking Ashleigh with me, wandered off down the train to hang around with Fred and George for a while: things were never boring when they were around. Sure enough, they were demonstrating their latest inventions to an enraptured crowd, which we joined and spent the rest of the journey watching them suffer from various fake illnesses via their new Skiving Snackboxes.

We had only been at Hogwarts a few weeks when there was a very surprising arrival. We had been warned about this, of course, but it still caused widespread shock and amazement. Leaning on the wall bordering the courtyard, Ashleigh on one side, George on the other, I watched a carriage drawn by flying horses arrive. This was all the more amazing for people like Ashleigh and I, as we were still getting used to all the magical world. As Hagrid ducked the carriage, George turned to his twin with a wide grin.

"Well, there's something you don't see every day."

Fred laughed, and Ashleigh, Harry and I continued watching the rather unorthodox entrance of the foreign wizards. The carriage was followed by a huge pirate ship rising from the water like some sort of mutant giant squid. It wasn't until later on that day, when we were all crowded into the Great Hall, that we finally got an explanation. Unfortunately, Dumbledore was only half way through his announcement when he was interrupted by Filch running down the aisle very strangely, and whispering something to Dumbledore. Having done this, Filch turned and ran, equally weirdly, back out of the hall. We all watched him with amusement. Dumbledore continued.

In a rather roundabout an ostentatious way, Dumbledore informed us that the school would this year play host to the Triwizard Tournament. Unfortunately, Ashleigh and I missed the rest of his speech because Fred and George had to explain to us what the Triwizard Tournament actually was. We had just about established that it was, in fact, a tournament in which three wizards take part, when the doors at the bottom of the hall were flung open and about a dozen girls in blue coats and stupid hands came in. They proceeded to walk down the main aisle in a very annoying way, leaning to the side every so often and sighing in an extremely obnoxious and narcissistic way. They even went so far as to release doves – doves! – from their hands. I rolled my eyes at Ashleigh.

"Bimbos." She stifled a laugh, and Professor Potato, who was sat nearest to us, shot me a disparaging look. After the girls had completed their very over-the-top entrance, which ended in a very tall, and even more ugly woman strolling down the aisle, the doors swung open once more and the hall went quiet in anticipation. This time, instead of the Barbie girls, lots of boys who, amusingly, did actually resemble Ken, came in. They seemed to only have a single facial expression. They then proceeded to slam their sticks and wave them 'impressively'. Now, you would have thought, what with us being teenage girls, that Ashleigh and I would've found this impressive. Nope. We found it hilarious. Once again, we received about 100 disapproving looks from Professor Potato, until Ashleigh threw a carrot at him and he turned away, looking shocked but amused.

The teachers were conversing quietly, but unfortunately for Ashleigh and I, we were sat close enough to the table to be able to hear their conversations.

The very tall, ugly woman was talking to Dumbledore. I only caught two words. "Professor Dumbleydore..."

For the third time in that single meal, I cracked up. In fact, I did more than crack up, I laughed so much that I fell backwards off the bench. Ashleigh, Harry and the twins all turned to stare at me in shock, and then George jumped up and helped me to my feet. "Are you alright?"

I managed to subdue my laughter for long enough to assure him that I was, and to glance towards the teachers' table, where Dumbledore was looking distinctly amused, and Professor Potato was stifling his laughter in a glass of pumpkin juice. I made a mental note to get him back later: Ashleigh and I had a kind of four year prank war going with him. It was an odd tradition, but a fun one.

Dumbledore managed to repress his amusement long enough to reveal a very large cup (at which point I commented to George that you could get _very_ drunk with that) which was apparently called the Goblet of Fire, and, judging by the reactions of everyone but Ashleigh, Harry and I, was important for some reason. He went on to explain that there would be three "highly dangerous tasks" and so on and so forth. I tuned out for the rest of the speeches, watching a rather strange looking teacher with an Irish accent (like we needed another one of those – Professor Potato, *coughcough*) wander around and take swigs from a dubious looking bottle at various random intervals. I was woken sharply out of my random stupor when Fred and George began to yell at Dumbledore and a man who'd seemingly appeared out of nowhere, but had more likely entered while I'd been 'lost in thought' as it were. This was not a common occurrence!

"That's RUBBISH!"

"BOO!" I turned to stare at George, and then turned back to Ashleigh.

"What's going on?"

She rolled her eyes. "They say it's dangerous so you have to be 17 to enter."

"Oh." I blinked. "So Fred and George are..."

"Very annoyed, yes."

"Okay."

"SILENCE!!"

I jumped out of my skin. Dumbledore, who was the one who'd shouted, surveyed the now silent (of course) hall. I spent the next few minutes reflecting on how he might just be the only person IN THE WORLD who could get the Weasley twins to shut up. And then the next few minutes after that reflecting on how that thought sounded way too like something Jeremy Clarkson would say. And then the next few minutes after that reflecting on what would happen if Voldemort was ever the Top Gear "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car." In fact, this amused me for so long, that next thing I knew, Ashleigh was dragging me to my feet and shaking her head at me for not listening to a single word Dumbledore said.

"Oh yeah, sure." I retorted "'Cos you were listening to Dumbledore and not just using it as an excuse to stare at the back of Harry's head for an hour." This resulted in me receiving a slap on the arm because Harry was right behind us, and in Fred teasing Ashleigh mercilessly all the way back to the dormitories.

That night, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ashleigh, Fred, George and I were gathered round the fireplace in the Gryffindor commonroom. Lee Jordan, who was usually with the twins, was over in the corner flirting mercilessly with poor Angelina Johnson, and being watched with amusement by Oliver Wood, Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet. A girl in our year named Amy was drooling over poor Oliver, and beside her Neville was helping a shy girl named Lucy with her Herbology homework. Besides which, we had grown increasingly closer to the Weasley twins over the years, mainly through spending the majority of every holiday at their house. Fred turned to his twin and raised his eyebrows, nodding his head in the direction of Ashleigh and Harry, who were talking shyly. I surveyed Fred suspiciously, as George grinned and nodded. I opened my mouth to ask them what the hell they were talking, or, um, not talking, about, when Fred took out his wand, pointed it in Ashleigh's direction, and said very quietly "Inhibitus Oblivatus"

All of a sudden, Ashleigh's face changed. She smiled rather coyly at Harry, who swallowed loudly, and began to edge closer to him. "So... Harry. Did you get hurt when you fell from heaven?"

I choked. So did Harry. "Um, what?"

"I mean, do the other angels miss you?"

Oh my God! Fred had jinxed Ashleigh into saying dodgy pick up lines!! I tried, and failed, to suppress hysterics. Beside me, George had stuffed his fist into his mouth to stifle his laughter, and Fred was giggling like a five year old girl. Hermione shook her head at us in disgust and dragged a protesting Ron ("I want to see this!") off to the library, probably to see if spells which resulted in the worst pick-up lines in the world were illegal. Harry, meanwhile, was backing away from Ashleigh.

"Um, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you do, Harry darling. Those gorgeous green eyes don't miss anything."

I proceeded to use George's shoulder as a gag for my laughter. Harry shot a 'help me!' look at me and the twins, but we were having _way_ too much fun. "What did you _do_ to her?!" I asked Fred through laughter.

"Got rid of her inhibitions."

Harry gave him a scandalised look, but got no further because Ashleigh continued. "If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?"

By this point, Fred, George and I were in tears. But it wasn't over.

"If we were the alphabet, I would put U and I together."

Cringe!

"Was your dad an astronaut?"

"Uh..." Harry looked at us for help, but we were beyond sanity now. "No... why?"

"Because someone's stolen all the stars from the sky and they're in your eyes."

"Um. I'm tired, I think I'm gonna go to bed-"

"Of course you're tired: you've been running through my head all week." Unfortunately, she wasn't done. "You know, you're so hot I'd bet you're the real reason for Global Warming." There was a pause in which more hysterical laughter came from Fred, George and I, and Ashleigh continued "Are you wearing space undies? Cos that arse is out of this world." And proceeded to sit herself on his lap.

"Okay!" Harry leapt to his feet. "I'M GOING TO BED!" He legged it.

"Reverso." Muttered Fred through laughter, and Ashleigh blinked.

"What just happened?" We laughed even more, but a minute later understanding dawned on Ashleigh's face. Evidently she'd remembered. "Oh, I'm gonna-"

"Ah." We ran. The advantage of Fred and George is that they know all of the passageways. The disadvantage is that they actually have need for them. So it was that I spent an hour sitting in a cold passageway watching Fred stare at the Marauders' Map, waiting for Ashleigh to go to bed, and eventually ended up falling asleep on George's arm. I avoided Ashleigh for the rest of the week. So did Harry.

**_Oops... _**

**_And btw, Ashleigh swears she's going to murder Kes for that. On August 5th, thanks to Kes' mother, because apparently she have to be alive to attend her own birthday party._**

**_R&R?_**

**_- Kes and Ashleigh_**


	6. Kes: An advancement of learning

_**OMG! An update! Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Year 12 is HARD. Title belongs to Seamus Heaney. (ugh)**_

**_Disclaimer: Yes, we own Daniel Radcliffe and Oliver Phelps. Mwahahaha._**

_**Chapter 5: **_**An Advancement of Learning**

It was Saturday, a few days after Dumbledore's announcement. We were all grouped around the Goblet of Fire, watching various people, mainly boys, put their names in. I was stood on the steps next to Ashleigh, almost right next to the age line. In retrospect this was probably pretty stupid, but hey. A boy I recognised as a Hufflepuff prefect named Thomas put his name in and walked out again, and Lavender Brown, who was stood behind me and had a major crush on him, leant forward. This didn't go so well for me. I was stood on the very edge of the step, and the slight nudge she'd accidentally given me when she'd moved forward was enough, when coupled with my lack of balance, to send me toppling off the step. I landed on my bum to utter silence, wondering absently why no one was laughing at my misfortune like they normally did. Then I stood up and realised. I was inside the age line. The silence stretched around the hall, and I looked sheepishly at Ashleigh

"Whoops."

The hall erupted. Cheers mixed with laughter and I looked around anxiously, scared to move in case Dumbledore's charm came into effect and I turned green or something. "Well done Kes!" I heard George yell from beside Ashleigh, and gave him a sarcastic look.

"So much for the age line." Ron muttered to Harry.

Seamus called out "Put you name in!"

"No!" I shook my head fervently "I don't _want_ to be in the Triwizard Tournament!"

"Put mine in then!" He replied.

"No!" I walked out of the line before Fred and George decided to join in. For a second nothing happened, and then I felt the queerest sensation on my chin. Suddenly the crowd burst out laughing. I looked down and saw, to my immense amazement, that I had a beard. Fred and George were laughing so much they were crying.

Ashleigh managed to stutter out between laughter "You... look like... Dumbledore!"

"Hey!" When she eventually managed to calm down, she went with me to see Professor Flitwick, to whom we explained what had happened and managed to convince him to reverse it. Fred and George addressed me as 'Oh Mighty Dumbledore' for the next three weeks, much to the confusion of those in earshot. It was, needless to say, a mentally scarring experience.

Amusingly, the Weasley twins never learn. Not even a week later, they decided that an ageing potion could fool the age line, and it was worth risking beards for the chance to enter the Tournament.

"I seriously don't get why they're so determined about this!" I complained to Ashleigh, as we watched Fred and George stir up the mixture in the Gryffindor commonroom. "I mean, why in hell would you want to risk your life?!"

"Um... 'cos you're Fred and George?" She supplied.

"Yeah, but still. What's in it for them?"

"Fame, fortune and everything in between." Fred called across the commonroom, and we both jumped guiltily – we hadn't been aware they were in hearing distance.

"Harry hates the fame." Retorted Ashleigh, and George shrugged.

"He doesn't need it, does he? He's got a fortune hidden away in Gringotts, but when you've been wearing your brother's hand-me-down... everything, it's not quite the same story."

"_Everything_?" Ashleigh wrinkled her nose, making me laugh, and Fred threw a Nosebleed Nougat at her.

A few minutes later, the twins decided the potion was sufficiently ready and headed over to the Great Hall. Ashleigh and I pondered for a few minutes over whether it was worth the effort of following them, and then decided it wasn't – we already knew exactly what was going to happen – and went back to doing homework, a.k.a. chatting. We had just moved onto planning our next joke on Professor Potato, when the portrait swung open and... voila!

"Well," I commented dryly, "You two really need a haircut."

Fred and George, both of whom were spectacularly endowed with beards even more impressive than mine, muttered something indecipherable and shuffled off to the boys' dormitory.

"Be careful!" I called after them, "I've heard that Lucy's got a thing for older men..." My reply was the door slamming.

Ashleigh shrugged. "We did warn them."

"Boys never listen." I sighed. "Although, we really should take pity on them. Don't suppose Professor Flitwick'd believe that they did it by accident...?" As if in answer, a loud bang echoed from the boys dormitory, and a couple of stray sparks tumbled down the stairs. Ashleigh shot me a look, and I grinned. "No, I guess not."

The twins' beards receded pretty quickly, but they were still sore about it, so Ashleigh and I decided that they needed cheering up, and what better way than a game of hide-and-seek? Having roped in Harry, Ron, Hermione (albeit with difficulty) and Ginny, we dragged the twins off to the astronomy tower which, we had decided, would be 'base'.

"If it lasts over," I checked my watch. "An hour, we all meet back here, alright?" The others all nodded their agreement. "So, who's it?"

Seeing as the castle was so very big, it was decided that we would play in twos. Ron and Harry were elected to be the seekers, which left Hermione and Ginny, Ashleigh and Fred, and George and I.

"...99...98...97"

"C'mon," I grabbed George's arm and dragged him off down the stairs. "We've only got 96 seconds left." He laughed at my obsessive-compulsiveness, and I frowned. "Hey, this castle is BIG."

"You're forgetting something." I waited, and eventually he conceded. "Fred and I know ALL of the secret passageways here."

I rolled my eyes at him, dragging the both of us out of the stairway and round a corner. "You're forgetting something – so does Harry."

"Oh."

"Right. But, there are some places Harry and Ron won't dare to check." I pointed to the third floor girls' bathroom we'd just come to a stop in front of.

"No way."

"C'mon, George. Don't tell me you're scared of a bathroom."

"No, I'm scared of what'll happen to me if McGonagall catches us coming out of the bathroom – I doubt she knows what hide-and-seek is, so what do you think she'll imagine we were doing in there for an hour?"

I went bright red and started walking again. "Fine."

"An hour?" Fred called from further down the corridor, where Ashleigh was trying to stuff him – rather unsuccessfully – headfirst into a broomcupboard. "I don't think McGonagall's imagination is that good."

George laughed, I made a scandalised face, and Ashleigh gave up on the cupboard (in fairness, it was only about as big as a post box, and clearly not tailored to fit the Weasley twins' height) and pulled Fred off down some stairs, tossing over her shoulder "Careful Kes, we've only got 54 seconds left." which caused me to panic and George to marvel over the apparently hereditary OCD of Muggles where hide-and-seek was concerned.

"Well," I put my hands on my hips indignantly, "what do you suggest we do?"

George winked. "What we Weasleys always do when faced with difficult situations: cheat." With which he pulled out his wand, muttered something, and turned us into the wall. Or at least, that's what it looked like. Apparently, some complicated camouflage thing he learnt off Charlie.

"Hide and Seek is a difficult situation?" I muttered, once I was finished expressing my amazement at this new development. ("Bloody hell! I'm a _wall_!_"_)

"No." He grinned. "_You_ are a difficult situation."

"Hey!" I yelled, just as Harry and Ron came down the stairs. Ron blinked.

"Uh, Harry, is it me, or did that wall just... talk?"

I couldn't help it. I cracked up.

A few minutes later, when George had turned the two of us back to our normal appearances and Harry had told us off for cheating, the four of us set off to find the others. I had a pretty good idea where Ashleigh and Fred were, but there was no way I was going to tell Harry. Or was I? Actually, Harry had been avoiding Ashleigh, and not in a good way, ever since the lost inhibitions incident. This could be the perfect opportunity to force them to talk it over. Fred and Ron were a potential problem, though. Unless...

"George," I muttered when the others weren't looking. "Go find Fred and kidnap him."

George stared at me. "I'm sorry, what?" Sighing, I explained my devious plan in a quiet whisper, as well as telling him where (I hoped) Fred would be, although I'm sure he could've used some freakish twin connection thing. "And Ron?" he asked, eyebrow raised. I grinned.

"Oh, don't worry. I'll take care of Ron."

"That was a _really_ scary face."

I made the face again. "Now go get Fred!"

He disappeared off down the corridor we were currently wandering down. "Where's he going?" asked Harry.

"Loo." I answered, waving my wand behind my back. Thank God I listen in Transfiguration lessons. Occasionally. A very very big pot right next to Ron's foot suddenly grew eight very long hairy legs.

"_AAAAAGH_!" Ron's scream echoed down the corridor long after he was gone.

"No, Ron! Come back!" Yelled Harry, and then sighed and looked at me. "What'd you do that for?"

"What are you talking about?! I thought it was you!"

"It wasn't me!"

"Well, then, who was it?" We both looked around, me feigning, quite nicely, I thought, worry. "Let's go this way." I suggested hurriedly, pointing, apparently at random to a statue of a tall knight, whom I called Sir Lancelot, due to my amusing King Arthur obsession, and Ashleigh called Sir Robin, thanks to the fact that I'd sat her down and forced her through 2 hours of Monty Python, which I loved, but which she clearly didn't. ("I cannot get that stupid song out of my head!!" "What, not 'Brave Sir Robin ran away, bravely ran away away'-" "Shut up!!") We liked this statue, due to the fact that it wasn't exactly a tunnel, but there was a strange little room behind it, which no one else knew about. Not even Fred and George! Well, until now, that is. I pushed Harry towards it.

"Go look in there."

"But that's just a-_"_ _Slam_.

There is another very good thing about this room. It can be locked. From the outside. Mwahahahahaha.

"KES!" Ashleigh's voice echoed through the rock. So I was right, then. Good job, otherwise I would have just pushed Harry into a random room on his own, for seemingly no reason in particular. "LET US OUT!"

"Not until you talk it through." I replied happily. "I'll be back in an hour. And remember, keep it PG – I said _talk_!"

Their scandalised silence was answer enough as I skipped off down the corridor. "Now, I really should go find Ron... And someone ought to tell Hermione and Ginny... Actually, nah. They'll come out by themselves in," I checked my watch. "Fourty minutes."

"Who are you talking to?" I looked up to see Professor Potato staring at me.

"You." I replied with a grin, and left, hoping he wouldn't hear Ashleigh and Harry, otherwise I was in trouble. Irish trouble. Which is, of course, the best kind.

**_Ah yes, Irish trouble. It's not good... Unfortunately, now Kes is in *English* trouble with Ashleigh for locking her in a room with Harry which, in fairness, she probably secretly likes. And now Kes is in more trouble for saying that in the vi_****_cinity of Harry. Hehe._**

**_R&R? _**

**_If no one updates this time, it's Ashleigh's fault. :D_**

**_- Kes & Ashleigh._**


	7. Ashleigh: All's Fair In Love and War

_**Hello! I'm so sorry it's taken forever for me to update but what with trips to Russia and AS exams, this got abandoned halfway through, until today :D**_

_**Disclaimer: No, funnily enough, none of this belongs to us. Apart from Kes and Ashleigh, who, you know, we are.**_

_**Also, I forgot to mention titles in my last chapters:**_

"_**Summer Days Driftin' Away" – from Summer Nights in Grease**_

"_**Watch The World Come Alive Tonight" – from Greatest Day by Take That**_

"_**They Say All's Fair In Love and War" – from Just Haven't Met You Yet by Michael Bublé**_

_**Chapter 6: They Say All's Fair In Love and War**_

"KES!" I yelled, banging on the wall to no avail whatsoever. "LET US OUT!" That girl was absolutely unbelievable. Faintly, I heard her saying something about being back in an hour and then she moved off down the corridor and I couldn't make out her words anymore. I could just about distinguish the Irish accent of Professor Potato as he stopped her and contemplated screaming very loudly before I realised that we weren't meant to know that this room existed.

So I was stuck here. For at least an hour (I didn't trust Kes). With Harry.

I sighed, leaning my forehead against the wall. Harry had spoken to me as little as was humanly possible since that stupid pick-up lines incident and now I here I was stuck in a tiny little room with just him for God knows how long.

"Um...Ashleigh..." I glanced over to a very nervous looking Harry and rolled my eyes. What did he think I was gonna do, attack him? "Why are you acting so annoyed?"

"Because we're stuck in here until my lovely best friend sees fit to let us out!"

"But...there's another door there." He was pointing to the back of the room, looking at me as if I'd totally lost it.

"I'd agree with you that I'm entirely unobservant, but Fred got dragged out of that door about thirty seconds before you got pushed in here so I'm guessing she's got the twins out there so we can't get out."

"Oh..."

"Yeah."

We both trailed off and stood there avoiding each other's eyes. I can honestly say I've never been in a room filled with more awkwardness. Neither of us seemed to be able to stop fidgeting, and the silence was ridiculously uncomfortable. It seemed to drag on for about six years, but it was probably about two minutes.

As much as I wasn't in the best mood with Kes about this, I had to admit it was quite clever of her. Harry had managed to avoid being alone with me since the first night back and even in Transfiguration, where McGonagall had sat us next to each other, he would make Ron turn around and talk to him, ignoring me completely. Of course, Transfiguration plus me had never had the best outcome and only last week I had managed to turn our desk into jelly. I have no clue how; I can't remember what I'd been trying to do, but suddenly mine and Harry's legs had been covered in what I think was raspberry jelly. Kes and I had been in hysterics, but Ron had taken the opportunity to make several rather loud comments about me and Harry cleaning each other up. I'd thrown jelly at him. I got a detention.

But anyway, I realised I had to talk to him and clear the air, as it were. He clearly wasn't going to start any sort of conversation, so I supposed it was down to me.

"Look, I think we need to talk." Understatement of my week. I paused to let him respond, but nothing was forthcoming so I just shrugged and carried on. "Things between us have been so awkward since the night we got here. I never got the chance to apologise, and I really don't want a stupid prank by the twins to ruin our friendship. I get -"

"That's really what it was?" He asked, cutting me off. "The twins did something to you?"

"Of course it was! Do you really think I'd act like that naturally? And do you honestly think I'd come out with lines like that? I mean, seriously, 'Do the angels miss you?'" I shook my head in disbelief. "If I was gonna try and hit on you, I think I could come out with something better than _that_."

He grinned, looking at the floor. "Some of them were pretty bad."

"Just a bit! I don't want this to mess things up between us, but, I dunno, can you, like, forget that I made a total prat of myself that night and all but attacked you?" Please please please say yes! If only for Fred Weasley's sake.

He decided a very long pause would be appropriate. Boys. No sense of timing. He was looking at me intently and I couldn't read what was going on behind his eyes. This silence was different to the awkwardness that had stretched between us before. Strange that could change so fast. Doesn't that just show he had been unnecessarily awkward?

He opened his mouth but seemed to change what he was about to say about a millisecond before he spoke. "Sure." He gave me the first genuine smile I'd seen from him in several weeks. I didn't want to just smile back at him. I wanted him to tell me what he had been going to say. But something told me I shouldn't push him, so I just went over and hugged him.

"Nice to have my friend back." I muttered into his shoulder and felt him laugh silently. "So," I said, pulling away after a minute. "What about revenge?"

He grinned. "What exactly did you have in mind?"

"Well, what's the only thing I've ever been able to do right in Transfiguration...?"

Forty five minutes later found us sat with our backs to the wall putting the finishing touches to our plan and just as Kes opened the back door to the room, we dissolved into giggles. She raised her eyebrows at me.

"Good to see you two have sorted things out. But we kinda have a problem."

"God, we can't leave you people alone for five minutes can we?" I sighed, shaking my head exasperatedly. "What've you done this time?"

"Our brother is currently being chased around the castle by a giant plant pot with eight legs." Fred and George were shaking with laughter as Fred told me.

"So much for brotherly concern." I exchanged a glance with Harry. "And why exactly does this plant pot have legs...Kes?"

She looked affronted and squeaked about how it wasn't her until I gave her a look and she tried to get defensive. "In fairness, you two needed to talk! And it was _so_ funny."

"I guess we should go and chase a big spider-like plant pot then." Harry got up and offered me his hand to pull me up. This got an interested look from the twins, especially when Harry kept hold of my hand far longer than he needed to.

I refused point blank to split up again for this search because I wasn't keen on the idea of spending another hour in some random room that didn't technically exist. However, we were saved the trouble of this search thanks to the arrival of Snape with a distressed looking Ron behind him.

"Is one of you to blame for this young man's actions this afternoon?"

Kes looked around for help, but we all looked right back at her until she turned reluctantly to our least favourite teacher. "Well sir, we were playing hide-and-seek, and - "

Snape held up a hand. "Whatever. You and your little friends just make sure I never catch you Transfiguring school property again." He directed his glare at me. "Especially you."

"He has a point," I remarked as he stalked back down the corridor past the traumatised Ron. "I'd probably manage to make the entire castle collapse. Or turn to jelly."

Kes spun round and glared at the rest of us. "Please don't _ever_ leave me to explain to him again!"

I shrugged. "Please don't ever lock me in a cupboard for an hour again."

"Hey, that wasn't a cupboard! I could've got you in a lot worse than that room!" Thinking of all the secret little nooks and crannies within the castle I had to agree. We were interrupted then by the arrival of Hermione and Ginny.

"What've you guys been doing?" Hermione demanded. "We've been hiding for ages! And what's up with him?" Ron was still white and speechless.

"Spider trauma." George said, sounding like a doctor explaining to a relative of a patient. "Oh, and we mislaid Ashleigh and Harry."

"That would be Kes-and-Twinsish for 'we locked Ashleigh and Harry in a room for an hour so they'd sort themselves out'." I corrected.

"Right..." Hermione gave us all a strange look and then went to escort Ron to the Great Hall for dinner. Ginny was glaring at me.

"Well, that's enough fun and games for one afternoon for me," I announced. "Coming to dinner Kes?"

"Sure. See you guys later." We set off down the corridor and I filled her in on what had happened with me and Harry.

"Awww, you two are so cute!" This wasn't good, she'd put on her let's-tease-Ashleigh-all-night voice. Resigning myself to an evening of this, I let her drag me the rest of the way to the Great Hall.

K&AK&AK&A

The next morning, I woke up early and snuck downstairs quietly to meet Harry in the common room like we'd agreed. When he turned up a minute later, we ducked behind some chairs so that we would be out of sight of the exit from the boys' dormitory, and lay in wait for Fred and George. For some reason, they were always early for breakfast. However, today, they wouldn't be in their normal seats at the end of the Gryffindor table.

We heard voices descending the stairs and got ready to leap out and grab a twin each. I had the spell in my head, the only Transfiguration one I ever had any success with, and my wand out ready.

They stepped out into the common room and me and Harry glanced at each other.

I mouthed a countdown so we'd jump together. "Three...two...one!"

We leapt round a side of the chair each and each tackled a twin to the ground. Before they had time to react, Harry and I looked at each other then directed our wands at the twins. As far as I could tell, I had George, only because he had been the one on the leftand they always seemed to stand the same way round.

"One, two, three...vera verto!"

George's eyes widened as he recognised the spell, but it was too late. Harry was having a similar success with Fred. As we watched, laughing, the twins shrank dramatically and after about thirty seconds, we had two lovely shiny goblets, silver with a hint of red that I suspected came from their hair.

Grabbing hold of what was now George, I told Harry to keep them separate. "I need this one for Kes," I said, grinning broadly.

Just then, Kes herself stumbled into the common room, yawning her head off.

"Morning!" I said brightly. "Let's go have some breakfast, I'm starving!"

"Ashleigh."

"Sí?"

"You hate breakfast."

Crap. Damn friends who know you too well. "Yes, but I'm really hungry today. And I want tea. Come on!"

"You and your tea..." she muttered, but let me shove her out the portrait hole, keeping George the goblet concealed behind me and making sure that I only touched the cup of the goblet. I wasn't going anywhere near the handle. Harry followed us out, sticking Fred the goblet in his pocket.

We got to the Great Hall and Kes scanned the room before confusion won as the main emotion on her face. "Where are Fred and George? They're always here before us!"

"Who knows," I replied, grinning. I sat her down on a bench and she promptly flopped down on to the table. How convenient. While her head was down, I switched the goblet in front of her with George and gestured to Harry to give me Fred, who I set down in the place opposite her so George wouldn't stand out as much.

I grabbed some pumpkin juice and filled George up. "Here we go, Kes, wake up time." She looked up at me as if to say 'Why the hell are you so cheerful, it's _morning_?' but accepted the goblet I was offering her without question. Harry had sat down opposite us in the place occupied by Fred so that no-one would take him. I'd questioned Ron about when I'd inadvertently done this to him in second year and he said he'd been aware of everything going on around him and he could feel everything. Perfect.

Kes started drinking, gave me and Harry really strange looks when we burst out laughing, drank a bit more and then paused. "This tastes weird."

I tried to look surprised, innocent and straight-faced. So not happening. "Really?"

Suspicion was waking her up. She narrowed her eyes at me. "What've you done?"

I smiled sweetly. "What on earth makes you think I've done something?"

She stared at me, considering what I could've done. I noticed, with great delight, that she was biting the top of the goblet, like I always did with polystyrene cups, while she thought.

"Seriously, what is so amusing?"

"Nothing...nothing." I filled Fred with pumpkin juice to make it a bit more realistic. Harry would not normally just sit there with an empty cup. And because I thought Fred was getting off too lightly.

That opinion changed, however, with the arrival of Ron. He sat down next to Harry, just about recovered from the plant-pot incident (which I was very sorry I'd missed) and looked from the jug of pumpkin juice to the goblet in front of him. Then he glanced sideways at the goblet by Harry's hand, already full.

"You gonna drink that, mate?"

Before either me or Harry could stop him, Ron had seized Fred and glugged down the juice. Me and Harry sat in stunned silence before totally cracking up. EW! Poor, poor Fred. At least George liked Kes. And wasn't related to her.

"My God, what is wrong with you two this morning?"

I was laughing too hard to actually be able to answer Kes, and heard Ron mutter something about mine and Harry's lack of sanity before shaking his head and tucking into his usual mountain full of sausages. Kes was looking at us with narrowed eyes, clearly trying to figure out what we'd done, whilst continuing to bite the rim of, well, George.

When I thought I could talk, I turned to Harry. "D'ya think we should tell her?"

She frowned. "Tell me what...?"

I giggled again. "Well, you didn't think you'd just get away with locking us in a random little room did you?"

"I guess not," she sighed. "But what've you done?"

"Well...how shall I put this? You know you were wondering where Fred and George are?"

"Mmm."

"They're where they always are at this time."

"But...they're here at this time."

Me and Harry exchanged smirks. "Precisely. Tell me, what exactly did that 'weird' tasting pumpkin juice taste like?" I gave George in her hand a meaningful look, grinning.

Her eyes began to widen as a look of horror settled on her face. "You didn't..."

I smiled, trying not to dissolve into hysterics again. "It always was the only thing I could ever do in Transfiguration."

At the mention of Transfiguration involving me, Ron's head shot up. "Do I need to start backing away?"

Harry patted him on the arm. "Not this time mate, but you might not want to do that!" He grabbed Ron's wrist as he reached for the jug of pumpkin juice with the intention of filling up Fred again.

Kes was staring at the goblet in her hand in dismay. "Please _please _tell me that this is not George Weasley."

"I could, but I'd be lying," I said, starting to laugh.

"You are _unbelievable_! Is this why you were asking Ron about it last night? If he could feel what..." She trailed off, realising that George had been aware of everything (not that I knew exactly how that would be for him, as a goblet is clearly very different to a human) and hurriedly putting him down. "So if this is George, erm, where's Fred?"

"Well you see, this was _not _part of the plan, but, um, there," I grimaced, gesturing to the goblet in front of Ron.

Then, chaos ensued, as Ron, once he comprehended that, went completely mad, drawing the attention of everyone in the Great Hall. Kes was attempting to make herself heard over the loud string of swear words, asking how we reverse it. Me and Harry just sat there trying not to laugh too much, when McGonagall turned up, asking what all the fuss was about.

"Oh Professor, it's such a good job you're here!" I tried to stop my voice shaking with barely suppressed giggles, and was surprisingly successful. "There's been a bit of a Transfiguration accident..."

She rolled her eyes at me. "Why am I not surprised? What happened?"

Kes was about to start an indignant rant before realising that she couldn't, because that would mean explaining why she'd locked me and Harry in a room that we weren't supposed to know about. I smirked at her and she glared back. I knew she wasn't really mad at me, she would be far too busy being embarrassed about George to have any spare emotion for anger. Ron, however, I wasn't too sure about. I decided that a policy of avoidance was probably the best option for the next couple of weeks.

Two minutes later, a slightly drunken-looking pair of twins were being ushered onto a bench by McGonagall whilst I sat there pretending to look sheepish. She let me off detention for my "mistake" as I'd only just done my detention for the jelly incident. Apparently there are only so many evenings she can spend with "one of us lot". All I can say is that it's a good job Snape wasn't there.

After she left, me and Harry were the subjects of four glares.

"Okay, well, first," I began, "Ron and Fred, we are actually very sorry for that, but Kes and George, not so much, you pair deserved it." I smirked at the looks on their faces. "So no locking us up again or we'll do something like this again." Not that it sounded like much of a threat, because I was grinning, but hey, Transfiguration "accidents" were easy for me to pull off, something that they were all very aware of.

Fred grunted. "Duly noted." Then he turned to Ron. "This never gets mentioned again, got it?"

"Oh hell yeah! Not a problem." Ron still looked disgusted.

"Although," I grinned, "you two do make a really nice coloured metal, if it makes you feel any better, and on that note, Kes, we gotta go. Later, guys."

Jumping at the chance to get away from George and the practically smell-able awkwardness between them, she nodded. When we were out in the Entrance Hall, she rounded on me.

"I cannot believe you did that!"

"Oh come on, don't tell me you can't see the funny side." She looked away. "See! You so do!"

"Whatever. It was kinda clever. You'd obviously get away with that what with your...record of unfortunate incidents. Still wasn't fair though."

"Of course it was fair. Remember, love and war." I grinned. "Am I forgiven?"

She just sighed and linked arms as we wandered to Transfiguration, where God only knows what would happen.

_**Haha, Kes hates me now :P**_

_**R&R?**_

_**- Kes and Ashleigh.**_


	8. Ashleigh: The Angels Can Wait

_**I know, I know, we're in shock as well...two updates within a week! :O**_

_**Disclaimer: Don't own apart from Professor Potato :-)**_

_**Title "The Angels Can Wait" taken from Westlife's "Written In the Stars".**_

_**Chapter 7 – **_**The Angels Can Wait**

October seemed to pass in a blur.

The Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students weren't such novelties any more, they had just become part of life in the castle (unless you were Ron and Fleur Delacour walked past). All that had come had submitted their names for the Tournament along with various Hogwarts students, and we could feel the atmosphere in the castle getting tenser and tenser as October 31st approached. Halloween, the night of the champions selection, was drawing closer and although we all appeared politely interested in who would be selected from the other schools, all we really cared about was who would be representing Hogwarts.

So school life was good, with apprehension adding that touch of ever-present excitement. Our personal lives, of course, weren't quite so straightforward. Harry and I still had that not-quite-defined relationship as he seemed to be refusing to ask me out and I was determined to wait, but it was obvious that something would happen at some point, as Kes took great delight in pointing out whenever she was teasing me about it.

However, she could hardly talk; things weren't what one would call perfect between her and George. Ever since me and Harry had pulled the goblet stunt on them, Kes had been avoiding George like the plague. Like Harry had avoided me after the pick-up lines incident. For which I thought that the goblet thing was completely justified revenge, especially when combined with locking us in a random little cupboard-like room for an hour so that we'd sort ourselves out. A point Kes didn't appear to agree with.

And as much as I wanted to do that to those two, watching them with each other was just a hell of a lot funnier. I had to admit, George didn't actually seem all that bothered, which just added to the amusement. He must've known he got it better than Fred, who had, surprisingly, kept the promise of never mentioning what had happened again, as Ron had.

Kes was still completely mortified, although she could now manage to form a coherent sentence in George's presence. We'd had many discussions about "The Incident", as Kes liked to refer to it as, which always seemed to end with me in hysterics and her in indignant silence, occasionally adding a pillow thrown at my head for added effect.

Still, when they actually achieved something remotely resembling a normal conversation the day before Halloween, I figured things were slowly improving between them.

K&AK&AK&A

The Halloween feast, as always, was spectacular, but there was a sense of buzzing impatience throughout the meal, with people constantly craning their necks to see if Dumbledore had finished eating.

Kes and I were just debating throwing mini marshmallows at Professor Potato, getting odd looks from him when he caught us watching him, when Dumbledore finally stood up and the Great Hall immediately fell into expectant silence.

I nugded Kes and nodded towards Professor Potato, who was looking vaguely relieved that we'd been interrupted in our plans.

"We'll get him later in week," I said.

"When he's not expecting it," Kes agreed.

We gave him one last smirk and then turned our attention to Dumbledore, who was in the middle of some speech about everlasting glory and triumph and all the incredibleness that was the Triwizard Tournament. Again.

"How many times have we heard this this year?" Ron whispered to Harry.

"About six hundred I think..."

But eventually, Dumbledore shut up and walked, in a very over-dramatic manner, to the Goblet of Fire, and there was a collective intake of breath as the blue flame flickering within it suddenly lept higher, drawing exotic patterns through the air above and around it and Dumbledore.

"That is so pretty!" I murmured to Kes, who was nodding in agreement.

Then, the whole Hall gave a combined gasp as the flame turned from blue to red, shooting upwards and emitting a slightly charred piece of parchment.

Dumbledore cleared his throat grandly and announced that the Durmstrang champion was Victor Krum.

Polite applause echoed throughout the Hall, especially from some of the female Hogwarts students, and the Beauxbatons girls.

Kes rolled her eyes. "There's a big surprise."

Hermione glared at Kes and seemed about to launch into a lecture, when she was interrupted by the flame leaping towards the ceiling again, this time providing Dumbledore with a round piece of parchment decorated with rather burnt (and, we thought, rather pointless) bits of ribbon.

After the appropriately long pause, Dumbledore proclaimed that the champion for Beauxbatons was Fleur Delacour. This time, the over-enthusiastic applause came from the male occupants of the Hall, especially Ron, who jumped to his feet and began to cheer.

Me and Kes shared a long-suffering look with the Twins. "We don't know him, okay?" muttered the twin that I think was Fred.

After Ron re-seated himself, having earned several scathing looks from the Beauxbatons girls, the tension in the Great Hall was almost unbearable. Hogwarts now. We all glanced around excitedly as the Goblet produced the third and final name.

Dumbledore really excelled himself with the dramatic pause this time, leaving us in a not-breathing silence for almost a minute before, "Cedric Diggory!"

The Hufflepuff table practically exploded, deafening the rest of us as we clapped for him.

"Let's hope he's more than just a pretty face then," I said, grinning at Kes. She shook her head at me, muttering something that I didn't quite catch.

Cedric was sent through a little door at the side of the Hall, which I swear had never existed before, where the others had gone and we all started to chatter excitedly about who was going to win.

However, this was Hogwarts, and, of course, nothing ever went according to plan. Dumbledore began to turn to head back to his seat at the teacher's table, when the Goblet suddenly spurted another tongue of red flame up to the ceiling. It swirled around erratically, and we saw another piece of parchment emerge from the midst of all the red flame.

I was seeing something at the edge of my vision. It wasn't a proper vision, more a feeling. Kes grabbed my arm.

"What's the matter?" she demanded. "What is it?"

I shook my head. "Something's not right. I can't...I can't See it properly." I glanced at the Goblet, trying to See through what seemed to be a kind of mist in my Sight. "That is not good." I felt like I was just stating the obvious, but the more I tried to tell what was wrong, the more clouded my head got.

Kes looked worried as the Hall quietened and Dumbledore snatched the paper out of the air as it floated down. An unreadable look crossed his face. When we discussed it later, some people said they thought it looked like fear. Personally, I thought resignation.

I heard it in his voice as he spoke the two words that would mess up this year for all of us.

"Harry Potter."

We, along with every other person in the Hall, turned to look at him.

"No. That's not possible." He was shaking his head. "I didn't..."

"Harry Potter!" Dumbledore shouted him again.

Whispers buzzed through the Hall.

He was a cheat.

He wasn't seventeen.

Why should he get to do this?

Famous Harry Potter, always different rules for him.

"No...but I didn't put my name in..." he whispered to us.

"HARRY POTTER!"

Jeez, I thought Dumbledore had more patience.

Harry looked up and met my eyes, and he looked so scared I just wanted to grab hold of him and not let him go into that room.

But Hermione had other ideas. She pushed him up, whispering "_GO!_" at him.

Dumbledore didn't do anything to stop him, just shoved him towards the door that the others had gone through. He motioned for several teachers to follow him before hastily dismissing the rest of us.

Kes had to pull me to my feet and drag me out of the Great Hall. I was feeling a bit dizzy from my weirdly clouded mind before so I had her and who I think was George supporting me all the way back up to the common room. Well, at least if it was George, that meant that things were definitely improving between them if they could do teamwork.

They deposited me in my favourite chair in our corner then everyone crowded me, insisting on knowing what I could See. But there was the problem, I was trying, but not getting very much.

Thankfully, Kes came to rescue.

"Look people, give her some space to breathe!"

Everyone backed off to their own chairs, but still watched me expectantly. I closed my eyes, tried to relax a bit and ignored them all. It took me a while, and the ten seconds or so barely seemed worth it, but what I saw made me gasp and jolt upright. I looked round at everyone, who had looked at me in alarm.

"They're going to make him do it."

There were collective exclamations of horror from Kes, Hermione and the Twins, but Ron just looked pissed off.

"I knew it! I knew he'd try and pull something like this!"

"What? You think he did this on purpose?" Kes asked disbelievingly.

"Oh, of course he did. He has to do everything." Ron scowled.

I just looked at him.

"Did you not see the look on his face?" I said quietly. "He was terrified. He didn't do this."

"You would side with him!" he snapped.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Kes came to my rescue as I sat there staring at him, shocked. Seriously, his best friend had just been put in a life-threatening tournament, and he was _blaming_ him!

"That means that she's never going to go against him because she's been in love with him for years!"

Thank God for Kes. The rant she gave him following that was extremely impressive, and had Ron storming off at the end of it, with no possible comeback.

I smiled. "Thanks."

"No problem. That prat deserved it."

I noticed George eyeing her appreciatively and gave a little giggle that came out as more of a choked sob.

Fred came and sat by me. "Don't listen to our idiot of a brother, he's just jealous. I mean, he had a point, the whole being in love thing..."

I stood up and glared at him.

"My feelings have nothing to do with this! Harry can't do this! He's going to die!" I turned to Kes, and couldn't stop myself bursting into tears. "He's going to die!"

"Nice to see you have so much faith in me," came a voice from behind me.

"Harry! I Saw what happened..."

"I can't believe they're making you do it," Kes said, trying to be subtle in giving me a tissue but kinda failing.

"Yeah, Crouch is refusing to break the rules to get me out of it...where's Ron?" he asked, belatedly realising his absence.

Kes glanced at me then told Harry that he'd stomped off to bed in a pretty pissed off state. "And I think I'll be going to bed as well," she added, gaining agreement from the Twins, who vanished up to their dorm.

"I think I'll turn in as well," said Hermione, disappearing.

"Yeah..." I realised, wiping my eyes, that I really did want to sleep.

Kes went up to the dormitory ahead of me and as Harry was about to disappear up to the boy's dorm, I turned.

"Harry?"

"Yeah?"

I wasn't really sure what I wanted to say to him. "Please...just be careful. This is more dangerous for you than anyone."

"Always the way isn't it?" He tried to smile, but his eyes just screamed fear.

I dabbed away another stray tear. "Yeah...God I wish it wasn't. Ever wonder what a normal life would be like?"

This time, he managed a rueful smile. "Every day. Well, I guess, goodnight, Ashleigh."

"Wait, you know the first night of this year?" Not difficult to remember... "I was thinking about some of the things I said to you, and as ridiculous as they were, there was one that just seemed kinda more...significant because it was you."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Really?"

"Well...you know all those angels that are apparently missing you in heaven?"

"I hope this is going somewhere," he remarked.

"Don't worry, the twins haven't got to me again." I paused and glanced down before looking up directly into his eyes. "I was just gonna say that they can wait. We're not done with you down here yet. We need you."

And with that, I turned and ran up to the dorm, leaving him with an adorably confused look in an empty common room.


	9. Kes: Syntax

_**Another chapter! We are on a **_**role**_**, people. So, this chap is likely to make no sense to anyone other than Ashleigh and I, but whatever. **_

**_Disclaimer: We now also on Villiers! How exciting. Ashleigh's pleased - it's like her life dream. :D Also, poem's Carol Ann Duffy's _Syntax_, which I love. _**

_**Chapter 9: **_**Syntax**

If four years of being friends with Harry Potter, 'the boy who lived' (ridiculously obvious title if you ask me), had taught me anything, it was that life at Hogwarts was never dull.

Exciting as it may have been, however, it was also occasionally terrifying, and what with Ashleigh practically dying of fear for Harry, Hermione practically dying of fear for Harry, Ginny practically dying of fear for Harry, and, indeed, Harry practically dying of fear for Harry, I figured we all needed some cheering up. Apart from Ron. Who was being a twat as usual. So I decided to set into motion an exceedingly devious plan.

One morning, a few days after the announcement of the Triwizard Champions, I woke up early (!) and slipped downstairs into the Great Hall, which, although the food and cutlery and everything was already laid out, was empty aside from a couple of sleepy Hufflepuffs, a super hyper looking Cedric Diggory and the occasional ghost. After checking that no one was looking, I tiptoed down to the staff table and edged along until I reached the place of... yes, Professor Potato, of course. Then, I pulled from out of my robe a vial of extra strong Love Potion, courtesy of Professor Snape; I had distracted him in Potions Lesson the day before by 'accidentally' tripping over and tipping Ashleigh's cauldron upside down, emptying what was supposed to be Veritaserum but probably bore more resemblance to Toxic Waste all over the floor and Malfoy's shoes. While he shouted in the general direction of Ashleigh and me, and practically licked it off Malfoy's shoes (ew) I summoned the Love Potion from his store room and, ignoring Ashleigh's questioning look, hid it inside my robes. Now, I uncorked it with a flourish and poured it dramatically into Potato's goblet, which, thankfully, was already filled with pumpkin juice. Good, plan completed and no one had seen, now all I had to do was-

"What are you doing?"

"What?" I jumped about a foot in the air and spun around, hiding the bottle behind my back, only to find myself face-to-face with Cedric Diggory. Oh goody. "Nothing. Why would you think I was doing anything? I'm not. I was just... doing nothing. Yes, that's right. Nothing. And actually, I was just going, so if you don't mind-"

"You were doing something." He looked at me suspiciously and I restrained myself from rolling my eyes. Well done, Cedric, all hail King of the Obvious.

"Well, yes, okay, I was, but now I'm not and I really do need to go before-"

Oh great. Into the Great Hall, sandwiched between Professor McGonagall and our History of Magic teacher, Professor Villiers, had just walked Potato himself. You _had_ to be kidding me. Quickly, I calculated my options. Option 1: shove Cedric and run. Tempting but very suspicious, and would probably result in detention. Option 2: stay here and try to look unsuspicious. Okay, no, that was worse. Option 3: Oh God. I glanced quickly at the table cloth covered table to my left, and then at Cedric to my right, and then to the rapidly approaching teachers who had yet to notice me. Right. Screw it. Without wasting another moment, I grabbed Cedric by his arm and half dived, half dragged him straight under the teachers' table.

Okay, so in retrospect it wasn't the best thing to have done, especially as Cedric began protesting loudly (until I – gleefully – muted his voice with a spell I'd learnt from George) and then gave me the single weirdest look I have ever had in my life: a mixture of something like 'why the hell are we under the _table?'_ along with 'why did you drag _me_ under this table?' and something else which had me a little worried, and edging away from him. Until, that is, I practically sat on Potato's shoe as he sat at his chair and tucked it in. I squeaked and shot away from his shoe and, predictably, towards Cedric, who, scarily, didn't seem to mind and was regarding me with a sort of amused look which one generally gives to a mad person; evidently he had decided, just for the moment, to stop attempting to ask me what was going on and just to wait and see what in hell was going to happen next. What did happen next was, even for my standards, epic. Judging from the growing noise level, the hall was now full of sleepy students. In fact, I could see Ashleigh's feet (we conveniently always sat near Professor Potato) from the gap where the table cloth didn't quite reach the ground, and just as I was considering throwing something (shoe, sock, Cedric...) at her, I heard her say very loudly, "Where's Kes?", and George reply "Dunno, up to no good, probably." I made a (quiet) noise of indignation, and then stopped as I heard Ashleigh, with stunning intuition, even for her, say loudly "Professor Potato, you haven't seen Kes, have you?" He did not reply. Instead, he said, "This pumpkin juice really is extraordinary, don't you think? Indeed, it compliments your complexion to the highest degree: did anyone ever tell you that orange works wonders with your skin? And might I add, your eyes are a gorgeous shade of brown this morning. I don't think I've ever seen more beautiful eyes. May I take a closer look?"

Oh God.

You had to be kidding me.

This was _not_ the plan! Potato was supposed to talk to Snape, who he sat next to, first after drinking the potion – he was supposed to fall in love with Snape! And then, Ashleigh had called his attention over to her. Oh. My. God. Ashleigh and I had a crush on Potato, sure, but it was a sort of vaguely amused crush, not a 'please-declare-your-love-for-me-in-the-middle-of-the-Great-Hall' kind of crush. Okay, I was dead. Breath Kes, breathe.

But the voice which very loudly answered Professor Potato's was not, to my immense relief, Ashleigh's.

Viktor Krum's unmistakeable tones echoed across the hall.

"_What_ did you just say to me?"

In the stunned silence that followed, (everyone in the hall was now listening closely) Potato declared across a hall full of students the single most embarrassing thing he could have said. "I said I love you! Marry me!"

Several things now happened at once. First, the hall erupted into raucous laughter, indeed, Fred and George were practically falling off the benches. Second, all of the teachers, practically as one, leapt to their feet and began calling for order. Third, Snape tried to restrain Potato, who was trying to climb across the table to get to Krum. And fourth, I cracked up, lost control of my reflexes and rolled out from under the table whilst laughing. Luckily, the hall had by now descended into such complete anarchy that no one noticed. Well, almost no one.

"Kes! What the hell were you doing down there? And you put that love potion in Potato's drink! That was utter genius! But why the hell where you under the table? I've been looking for you-" Ashleigh (who was half confused, half in hysterics) was cut off by shock when Cedric Diggory followed me out from under the table. Next to her, Harry, Fred and George looked scandalised.

"Hey! What the hell? I thought we were boycotting contact with Diggory on the basis that he's a git." Fred frowned at me. His twin looked genuinely distressed – he must really hate Cedric.

"Okay, guys – I know what this looks like, us crawling out from under a table and all, but me and Cedric... not gonna happen. Ew." I shuddered.

Cedric looked offended, and opened his mouth to protest, but quickly I stood up, shoved him back under the table and threw myself onto the bench next to Ashleigh, just in time. Dumbledore had just managed to call the hall to order.

Or at least, he had for a moment. But just as he was trying to say something regal about a very cruel prank involving Love Potion, something even I hadn't planned on happened. Potato was being dragged off by Snape and Flitwick (who wasn't really all that much help) when, to everyone's surprise, Professor Villiers stood up.

Perhaps some background is required here. Ashleigh and I had had a running joke about Potato and Villiers, the circumstances of their relationship, and what exactly they got up to on their "boys' weekends away", (which they did every year) for about four years. But we had been kidding. I mean, last year we sent a Valentine's Card to Villiers, and signed it "From your love, the Irish Potato." (in the hope that he would catch on) and had hidden in a broom cupboard in the hope of seeing his reaction when he got it, i.e. Death to Potato. Unfortunately, Snape caught us and marched us off to detention, so we never did get to see him open it. However, as far as we had known, neither Villius nor Potato felt anything for each other than awkward manly friendship. Oh, and Ashleigh had a crush on Villiers, too. Not that that was a surprise, after all, Ashleigh had a crush on everything with XY chromosomes. Anyway, when he leapt to his feet dramatically like that, neither one of us had the slightest clue about what was going to happen next.

"Wait," he cried in the manner of an overdramatic Shakespeare character, "is this true? You're in love with Viktor Krum?"

Okay, so clearly Villiers did not get the whole Love Potion thing. Still, who could blame him – you could barely hear Dumbledore over the racket. But why did he sound so... betrayed? Hold on. Ashleigh and I exchanged shocked but realising looks. No way.

"He is at the moment," piped up Fred helpfully. This made things worse.

"I thought... I thought we..." Villiers stared at Potato. Everyone in the hall stared at Villius. "I know we never said anything, but I always thought that maybe you felt the same. I hoped that one day... maybe..." He raised a hand to his forehead. "But now that hope is gone!"

"Okay," I whispered, "who spiked *his* drink with Overdramaticness Potion?" Fred had the decency to look guilty. But Villiers was far from finished.

"And the Valentine's Card! Didn't that mean anything for you? Was it just a joke?" Whoops. We exchanged guilty but amused looks. "How could you betray me like this? In front of everyone? And with him!" He rounded on Krum. "You stole his heart from me! How could you?"

"Hey," I said softly to Ashleigh. "This is like Brokeback Mountain all over again." Ashleigh, who had only recently seen it, thanks to my adoration of both Heath Ledger *and* Jake Gyllenhaal, giggled. Too loudly. Villiers was off again.

"THIS ISN'T FUNNY, ASHLEIGH! THIS IS MY *LIFE*!"

Ashleigh hid behind my elbow and Harry, Fred, George and I all glared at Villiers. Suddenly, to everyone's shock, Potato spoke up. "I'm your life?"

Villiers blinked. "I-, er, that's, er, I didn't..." he stopped and looked at Potato. "Yes."

Potato shrugged off Snape (who was too stunned to protest) and stepped towards Villiers. "You're mine, too. I don't know what I was thinking. I never loved him!"

Ashleigh turned to Fred. "Exactly how many people have you given Overdramaticness Potion to, Fred?" Fred looked at his twin and shrugged.

"Dunno, we put it in the food. You might have eaten it."

Harry, who had just decided that he was hungry, and had begun nibbling a breadstick, dropped it like it was on fire. I laughed, commented on how this was really not a good day for people in the potions department, and next time we really must check each others' plans otherwise they might collide like this time and create catastrophic though admittedly hilarious results, and then turned back to the commotion. Something occurred to me.

"Hey, I thought you had to take something to combat Love Potion."

"You do."

"But Potato didn't." We all turned to look at Professor Potato, who was currently professing his love for Professor Villiers to the scandalised looks of the teachers and amusement of the pupils ("I've always loved you, I'm sorry I didn't tell you before!") and then back at each other.

"Wow," Ashleigh said suddenly, softly.

"What?" I asked, intrigued by her gentle tone in the midst of this anarchy.

"He must really love him." She said simply.

We all turned back to Potato and Villiers, who were now being ushered out of the hall by McGonagall, and who were, adorably, holding hands. "Yeah," I said happily, as Ashleigh and practically every other girl in the hall went "aww". The boys shifted awkwardly and made manly comments. George was still being quiet, which was odd. Harry was, amusingly, watching Ashleigh. Suddenly, in the lull following the commotion, Fred leapt to his feet.

"Well, ladies and gentleman, that was quite a show. So, after my twin and I have taken the credit," he bowed in response to the clapping that erupted spontaneously, (I should have been annoyed but was relieved: no detention for me!) "I think we should all celebrate our school's first gay couple, by... singing!" He broke out into a marvellous rendition of 'I will always love you'." And the whole school had got through at least 2 verses and a chorus before Dumbledore managed to shut them up.

In our next History of Magic lesson, Villiers abandoned all pretext of history and read us a poem instead. Ashleigh practically fainted.

_"I want to call you thou, the sound_

_of the shape of the starts_

_of a kiss – like this, thou –_

_and to say, after, I love,_

_thou, I love, thou I love, not_

_I love you._

_Because I so do –_

_as we say now – I want to say_

_thee, I adore, I adore thee,_

_and to know in my lips_

_the syntax of love resides,_

_and to gaze in thine eyes._

_Love's language starts, stops, starts;_

_the right words flowing or clotting in the heart."_

The next time we saw Potato he thanked us.

Then, he hit Ashleigh square in the back of the head with a blob of mashed potato.

"In revenge for the carrots," he said, and left.

**__****_Ah, we will never be able to look Potato in the eye again. Oh, and Ashleigh is *so* not forgiven for the water goblet incident! Kes (and poor George) is scarred for LIFE!_**

**_R&R?_**


	10. Kes: Men are like buses

_**Okay, so according to this we last updated pretty much exactly a year ago...oops... But all exams are now done :)**_

_**This is Ashleigh posting on behalf of Kes who has abandoned me for a month in Germany so I'm not entirely sure where she got the title from but she disclaim it another time...speaking of, as per, we don't own these people...**_

_**Chapter 10:**_** Men Are Like Buses**

A few days later, and the scandal caused by the school's first gay couple was beginning to die down. Well, sort of.

"How the bloody hell did you get that bloody flag up there in the bloody first place?" Ashleigh, standing with her hands on her hips, stared up at the rainbow flag fluttering cheerfully at the top of the astronomy tower, and turned to Fred with a "you'd better fix this now or you're so dead" look.

Fred made a face. "Well, I can't remember all of my devious plans."

"Yeah," George piped up. "Even geniuses like ourselves can only retain so much information."

The twins had, of course, been the ones to fix the gay flag with a permanent sticking charm to the front of Hogwarts. I treated them to my best 'unimpressed' face.

"Look, it's your fault we're in this situation in the first place. I mean, we didn't even have anything to do with this!"

'This situation', specifically, meant being under threat of expulsion and/or death by McGonagall if the four of us didn't get the flag down immediately. And the situation had come about because Ashleigh and I clearly had not learnt, by now, that, when the Weasley twins are planning a prank, you stay away. Far away. Basically, Fred and George had expressed their intention of doing something of this kind to express their 'solidarity' with Potato/Villiers (which in twin terms meant to piss McGonagall off) and I had piped up about the gay flag:

"You could hang the rainbow flag in the Hall!"

"Rainbow Flag?"

The gay flag was, of course, a Muggle thing. Ashleigh, after having educated them on the topic of all things gay-men related, set about procuring said gay flag, and then the twins decided to enlarge it and hang it from the Astronomy Tower. What they didn't tell us, was that 'enlarge' actually meant 'make as big as Hagrid' and 'hang' meant 'use a permanent sticking charm'. McGonagall, seeing the flag, had of course known immediately that the twins were involved. However, knowing that the rainbow flag was a Muggle thing, and being used to seeing Ashleigh and I hanging around with Fred and George, she very (unfairly in our opinion) correctly inferred that the two of us had something to do with it. Hence, she had charged the four of us with the task of getting it down immediately, or else. And hence the 'situation' of the four of us arguing at the bottom of the Astronomy Tower.

"Well... you kind of _did_ have something to do with it."

While technically true, this was not the best thing to say to an irate Ashleigh. "Fred-or-George Weasley, you get that flag down right now, or God help me I will turn you into a water goblet! ...Again!"

"A pink one." I added helpfully, and George (whom Ashleigh had been addressing) looked frightened. Rightfully so – being on the receiving end of a spell from Ashleigh was never a good thing.

"Right. Erm. Fred?"

"Hey, you're the smart one."

"It was your idea."

"Technically, it was Kes's idea–" Ashleigh gave him a look and he continued hastily. "But we'll find a way to fix it. Um. There has to be a reversing charm or something, right?"

Needless to say, we all ended up in detention.

Although it was a stupid idea to get involved, we had done so partly to get Ashleigh's mind off Harry. The poor boy was freaking out about the Triwizard Tournament enough, without Ashleigh hyperventilating, too. Just as Harry was beginning to get used to the idea that he might die (and painfully) quite soon (but then, as that was his perpetual state, I suppose it shouldn't have been too hard for him to adjust) someone turned up to make things even worse. Rita Skeeter.

"Right, I'll just take the Champions in here now... Yes dear, in there, that's right... You too Cedric, and Harry, and- No. No, you can't come in here. Who are you?"

Ashleigh, who had been trying to follow Harry into the room where Rita Skeeter was going to interview/interrogate/torture them, frowned at the gaudy reporter. "I'm Harry's friend."

"No, no friends. It's just the Champions. Go away." She spun around, almost whacking Ashleigh in the face, and swept into the room, followed by her sheepish looking photographer, whose bag proclaimed him "Alex Codman." I was reflecting on the unfortunateness of being called 'A. Codman' when a still scowling Ashleigh turned towards me.

"We have _got_ to get into that room."

"Ashleigh..." I groaned – we had only just got out of trouble for the whole rainbow flag thing. "Do we have to?"

"Yes!" She frowned, and began muttering eagerly about Harry's invisibility cloak and the Marauders' Map and secret passageways, and was indeed so engrossed in planning that she didn't notice the door swing open, and I had to drag her around the corner quick. Rita Skeeter and a worried looking Harry passed us a moment later, and, exchanging glances of mutual decision, we followed them quietly, until, at the blonde woman's insistence, they eventually stopped... outside...

"A broom cupboard?"

Ashleigh shushed me, and narrowed her eyes as Skeeter pushed poor Harry into the closet and shut the door behind her. The next thing I knew, the brunette's ear was pressed against the door, and she was telling me to keep lookout. Meanwhile, the conversation Harry was having with Rita Skeeter, albeit somewhat onesided, was quite loud, meaning I could hear it from the pillar I was hovering behind – unwilling to go any closer to the door, yet equally unwilling to leave my admittedly insane best friend behind.

"I knew your spy powers would come in useful one day, Anthea." (We had recently developed a love of Sherlock Holmes – books, film, TV series, you name it – and had acquired appropriate nicknames. Mine was... immensely flattering.)

"Shut up, Crofty." (Yes, as in Mycroft. What a charming friend I have.) "I can't hear what she's–"

"What in hell are you doing?"

I spun around, having momentarily forgotten my look-out duties, to find myself face to face with Alex Codman. I met Ashleigh's eyes again with a kind of "Oh crap" look.

"Erm, we're just... erm..."

"We're with the paper!" Ashleigh had clearly just had a spark of brilliance. "We want to be journalists when we grow up, and we just want to learn how to be amazing, fantastic writers like Rita Skeeter." She put on her best innocent face.

"Yeah," I joined in. "In fact, I'd love to be a photographer for a newspaper. Can you give me any advice? Your photos are always so brilliant..."

It was some time before we could escape. But at least we escaped suspicion. And Harry never knew – well, until George asked him how his 12 year old eyes were dealing with the glittering ghost of his past, and if he really had a pathological death wish, and then he cottoned on. It was the second time in a week that Ashleigh and I learnt _never_ to tell the Weasley twins _anything_.

In other news, Harry and Ron were still fighting, Hermione was getting sick of acting as an interpreter for the two (the rest of us weren't talking to Ron – the git) and Harry was getting increasingly worried about the first task. And he was about to get more worried.

When Harry disappeared out of the common room that night, with a quick explanation that Hagrid wanted to meet him, none of us had the slightest idea where he was going, except perhaps Ron, but he was sulking, so we didn't find out about that until later. But anyway, it was a pretty quiet evening: I was reading (as always), the twins were conducting various explosive looking experiments, and Ashleigh was watching Sherlock Holmes (AGAIN) on Arthur, my iPod. (Yes, it has a name.) Part way through the boxing scene (I was watching over her shoulder – way more exciting that The Mill on the Floss) she suddenly went very still. Another vision. I leant over to pause the film and waited for her to snap out of it. Minutes later...

"OH MY GOD!" She leapt to her feet and began to run around like (forgive the cliché) a headless chicken. "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OHMYGOD!"

"WHAT?" I had jumped to my feet also, and, along with the entire Gryffindor common, was currently staring at Ashleigh. "What the HELL did you See?"

"HARRY!" I sighed. Of course. It was always Harry. "HARRY AND DRAGONS!"

Oh, this just kept getting better.

By the next day, I had (mostly) succeeded in calming both Ashleigh and Harry down, and the three of us were wandering through the outer courtyards on the way to lunch. Harry had told us the night before about Hagrid and the dragons and Ron knowing about them, and Ashleigh had panicked and tried to make him run away with her to Moldova in order to avoid having to fight a dragon. He had just about managed to convince her that there was no way he was moving to Moldova, no matter how amazing that year's Eurovision entry had been, when he noticed the joy that is Cedric Diggory loitering in the garden, and, ignoring my vehement protestations, headed towards him. Ashleigh and I exchanged horrified looks, and, grudgingly, followed him.

"Can I have a word?" The two of them edged off to the side, and Ashleigh and I hovered, trying to look like we were supposed to be there, whilst his lovely friends shouted stuff at Harry and waved their truly inventive badges around.

"Potter stinks?" I rolled my eyes. "Never heard that one before."

Ashleigh nodded absently, staring at Harry's back. I followed her gaze, and, unfortunately, due to Harry being about half Cedric's height, met the Hufflepuff's eyes instead. He smirked. I looked away quickly. Gimp. When I looked up again, Harry was already disappearing off down a corridor, Ashleigh running after him, and I was forced to run after her, which, considering my sense of balance, was not such a great idea. I tripped, of course, over Cedric's stupidly huge feet, and landed in a heap on the floor. Fantastic. I looked up, about to appeal to Ashleigh for help, but Harry seemed to be in the middle of a lovers' spat with Ron and Ashleigh, who was having way too much fun watching Harry yell at Ron, shrugged at me amusedly from across the grass. Instead, it was Cedric who offered me a hand up.

"I'm so sorry! Let me help you up."

Wonderful. This just _kept_ getting better. I had been avoiding Cedric since the "table incident", on account of my embarrassment at having apparently momentarily taken leave of my senses and dragged him under a table. Gaze lowered, and trying to control my mortification, I accepted his help, practically leapt to my feet and, with a muttered "Thanks", legged it off to where Ashleigh and Harry, having apparently completed Level 1: Cedric, and Level 2: Ron, had now moved onto Level 3: Malfoy. Joy.

Just as I got there, Harry suddenly became dramatic, exclaimed "I don't give a damn what your father thinks, Malfoy!" and shoved Draco Malfoy in the chest. And then, he went on to call him pathetic. Clearly, Harry was not in the best of moods. He turned away, and, seeing his opportunity, Malfoy drew his wand.

"Watch out!" yelled Ashleigh, but she needn't have bothered, because Professor Moody had been watching from across the courtyard, and had a much better solution.

Where, a mere moment ago, Draco Malfoy had been stood, there was now a small, fluffy, white ferret. The whole courtyard erupted into delighted laughter. 'Mad Eye' Moody had definitely just made it into our top five favourite teachers. He bounced Malfoy around a bit, and then took a bit too much joy in inserting him into Crabbe or Goyle's pants (never learnt which was which), and, just as Ashleigh and I were getting to the point where we were laughing too much to breathe, and would soon need medical aid, Professor McGonagall came along to ruin the fun. Harry was then dragged off by Moody, so Ashleigh and I were left to head on to lunch and relate the events to Fred and George, who were horrified not to have been there, and spent the rest of lunch trying to figure out ways of getting him to do it again.

The common room that evening found a rather subdued bunch of us, huddled in various chairs and sofas, watching the last remnants of the fire die down.

"Hey," piped up Fred after a while. "What do you suppose dragons eat?"

"Well," Harry replied gloomily, "considering how well this preparing thing's going, me, probably."

George shook his head, evidently having caught on to Fred's idea (no surprises there). "No, do you reckon they eat...just an example...ferrets?"

I burst out laughing. "You can't feed Malfoy to Harry's dragon!"

Fred shrugged. "Why not? It's not like anyone'd miss the little git."

"Yeah, we'd probably get ten points to Gryffindor or something."

"McGonagall would not give you house points for killing Malfoy."

"No," Fred considered, "but Moody might,"

"Ashleigh," I groaned. "Tell them they can't feed Malfoy to the dragon, please."

"Hey," Ashleigh shrugged, "if it saves Harry I'm all for it."

"And, you know, if it's a very hungry dragon, I'm sure it wouldn't be opposed to finishing off Snape as well."

George nodded his agreement. "Wonder what Snape'd look like as a ferret..."

"Right," I shrugged, "well, do send me a postcard from Azkaban, won't you?"

Fred grinned. "Azkaban couldn't hold us, could it Georgie?"

George shook his head. "Nope. Death Eaters are no match for our Nosebleed Nougats."

Harry and Ashleigh, side by side on the sofa, were noticeably quiet. I saw George glance at them, and then at his twin, anxiously. Bless them, I realised with a smile, they were trying to cheer the pair up. They were sweet.

George was looking at me strangely, and I realised with horror that I'd probably just been staring at him and smiling for the past few moments. Mortified, I leapt to my feet, looking anywhere but George.

"Right," I said. "What we need now is ice cream, and lots of it. Who's coming to the kitchen with me?"

Hermione, who was doing some last minute reading on dragons in the corner, tried to protest. "Harry needs his sleep – he's got to be rested for tomorrow."

But Harry was already on his feet. "I could definitely use some ice cream." He cracked a smile – the first that evening. "And maybe some Firewhiskey. You coming, Ashleigh?"

She was already stood up.

"Of course," I laughed, glad to see Harry in better spirits. "When have you ever known Ashleigh to pass up on food?"

"Hey!"

"It's true," Fred agreed. "And we're in, too."

"Always up for a little midnight mischief." George added. "And if we should just happen to meet Malfoy on the way..."

"You're not all going to fit under Harry's cloak." Hermione cut in.

Fred stared at her. "You think we need an invisibility cloak? George and I are masters of disguise."

"Houdinis of the wizarding world," added George.

"Connoisseurs of concealment."

"Thaumaturges of trickery."

"Dons of dissemblance."

"Shamans of simulacrum."

"Necromancers of-"

"Alright!" I cut Fred off mid-sentence. "You'll be dispossessors of the dairy desser if you don't get a move on."

Ashleigh laughed. "Hermione's right, though."

"What?" Fred feigned mortal offence, "you don't believe in our powers of concealment."

"Oh god, let's not go there again." I turned to George. "We'll take the passageway behind the Merlin tapestry, right?"

He nodded.

Harry grabbed his cloak from the chair. "I'll take it anyway, just in case." He looked at Ashleigh. "That way not everyone has to get into trouble if we're caught."

I grinned, as Ashleigh blushed. A few minutes later, we were all creeping toward the giat tapestry, which was about ten minutes' walk from the Gryffindor common room. As the twins, encouraged by Harry's slightly improved spirits, had taken to cheering him up by plotting possible sabotages of Cedric/Krum/Fleur, most of which in some way involved Snape and/or Malfoy, I was able to corner Ashleigh alone.

"Soooooo..." I said casually, "you and Harry seem to be pretty close all of a sudden."

She shrugged and went red. "We're friends."

"Just friends?"

"Just friends."

"Except that you're like in love with him-" This earned a mortified shriek and a glance in Harry's blissfully unaware direction. "And he obviously likes you, so..."

"No he doesn't." She scowled. "Can we please just drop this?"

I shrugged, knowing when to back off – I'd get her later. "Fine. So then what's up with Seamus?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he keeps staring at you-"

"Yeah, and what about you and Cedric Diggory?"

"That wasn't my fault! He thinks I fancy him because I kind of accidently dragged him under a table-"

"Accidentally?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, on purpose, but I was under stress and not accountable for my actions."

"Tell George that. He didn't look happy when you came crawling out from under that table with Mr. Edward-lookalike Diggory."

I frowned. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Suuuuure."

"Ashleigh -"

"Cos you totally _don't_ fancy him-"

"Ashleigh-"

"And there's nothing _at all_ between you-"

"I'll talk about Harry again!"

That shut her up. We shuffled along in silence for a few moments, before she said sufferingly: "Men."

I nodded. "They're like buses. You wait forever for one to come along, then three turn up at once."

And then we started giggling. We were only 14, after all.

The ice cream was a success (it solves _everything_) and we luckily made it back safely to the common room, although we did have rather a close encounter with Snape, and it was all we could do to keep Fred from leaping out from behind the tapestry and turning him into a ferret.

But the amusement could only last for so long, and the shadow of the Triwizard Tournament, which had been looming over all of us for the past few days, had now taken shape: large, fierce and fire breathing.

We went to bed in low spirits, sick with worry for the following day.

Who knew what it would bring?

_**R&R?**_

_**Kes and Ashleigh**_


	11. Ashleigh: What My Heart Wants To Say

_**Two updates in a week! We're in shock too!**_

_**We disclaim. Tis very unfortunate, but we do not own Harry or George or anyone.**_

_**Title from "What My Heart Wants To Say" by Gareth Gates (because you just have to love Gareth Gates...)**_

_**Also – includes reference to A Very Potter Musical, which if you haven't you must watch!**_

_**Chapter 11:**_** What My Heart Wants To Say**

The morning of the first task, I awoke with a start from dreams full of fires and dragons and falling and Harry. Trying to return my breathing to something vaguely resembling a normal rate, I turned over, fumbling for my alarm clock. 5.30. I groaned. Perfect.

Sensing that more sleep wasn't going to come any time soon, I attempted to get out of bed without getting too tangled in the hangings (which always happened when it was dark), was more successful than I thought, and, not wanting to wake Kes this early, crept down to the common room.

Yawning, I stumbled over to the corner that we had adopted as ours – it had the squishiest armchairs – flopped onto the biggest one, which we had long since decided was a sofa masquerading as an armchair as two people could fit on it quite comfortably, and went straight into panicking-about-Harry mode. Again.

I passed a not too enjoyable half hour envisaging all the ways he could potentially die this morning until I was interrupted by footsteps padding down from one of the dormitories.

Harry appeared, looking absolutely terrified and wandered in my direction without actually having seen me. He registered that I was there when he was about to sit on me and hastily arranged his features into a not-in-any-way-convincing smile.

"Morning." His voice was shaking as he sat down next to me and stared blankly into the fire.

"Hey." I whispered, not really wanting to talk loud enough to see if my voice was as shaky as his. "Um...how are you feeling?" Stupid question of the century.

He met my eyes for the first time and just shook his head before throwing his arms round me and hiding his face in my shoulder, shaking. Shocked, I hugged him back, hesitantly patting him on the back and trying to figure out what to say.

Thankfully, I was saved by the appearance of a sleepy looking Kes, who knocked over a plant on her way over to us, alerting Harry to her presence. He sat up quickly and turned away, dragging his sleeve across his face before returning to his staring contest with the flickering flames in the grate.

Kes curled up in the chair opposite me and yawned. There was a slightly awkward silence, broken by Kes' asking, "Ashleigh, why the hell are you up at five past six?"

I shrugged. "Couldn't sleep."

We descended back into silence, and spent the next couple of hours sat around not saying very much until other Gryffindors began to amble downstairs on their way to breakfast.

The rest of the morning flew by. With the appearance of the twins, we dragged Harry to the Great Hall to try and force some breakfast down him, a task not helped by the fact that I wasn't eating either until Fred stuffed some bacon in my mouth, claiming that now Harry had no excuse. Swallowing with difficulty, I glared at Fred, who took refuge behind Kes' hair, which was quite impressively fluffy today, and then at Harry, who reluctantly picked up a piece of toast.

It seemed like about five minutes later when we had to take Harry down to the massive tent that had been put up in the grounds to hide the dragons from the (mostly) unsuspecting students.

We all went into the tent, glancing around warily. There seemed to be two bunk beds (hopefully not for corpses) and that was about it.

The other champions were sat around looking rather ill and it was only when we realised that they were all alone that we thought that perhaps we shouldn't be there.

Cedric looked up, nodded in our general direction then noticed Kes and winked at her. She coughed and tried to pull me back out of the tent.

Sighing, I put myself between her and Cedric and turned to Harry, who seemed close to hyperventilating or just fainting.

"Hey. Harry." His eyes flicked up to mine. "You'll be fine," I whispered, sounding a lot more confident than I actually felt.

He smiled weakly. "If something happens, I just want you to know that I -"

"Good day champions!" Dumbledore entered with a dramatic flourish and strode to the middle of the tent. He smiled round at the other three, looking, I thought, really quite amused, and then got to Harry, with the four of us crowded around him. He blinked. "What on earth are you four doing here?"

Fred muttered something about taking bets and hurriedly dragged George, who was glaring at Cedric, after him out of the tent.

"Sorry, Professor," said Kes. "We'll just, um, go."

"Yes dear, I think that would be for the best," sneered a new voice from behind us. Rita Skeeter came flouncing into the tent followed by Alex Codman and Harry groaned, still looking annoyed that Dumbledore had interrupted him.

"Ashleigh, we need to _go_!" Kes was hissing at me.

"Okay, okay!" I turned to Harry. "Well...good luck..." I started to leave, but, having a pretty good idea of what he'd been about to say, I turned back and flung my arms round him before running out of the tent, followed by a smirking Kes muttering something about "being melodramatic".

The smirk, however, was quickly wiped off her face when Cedric's voice floated out of the tent, asking Dumbledore if he could go and get a hug off her because "if it's the last hug I'm ever going to get, well, I want it to be off her."

Well, at least George wasn't still there.

I was too worked up over Harry to start giggling properly, but I did have to laugh at the horrified expression on her face as she grabbed me and dragged me over to find the twins.

Eventually, we located them right on the other side of the big arena-type place, next to Ron and Hermione, just before there was a very loud bang from the cannon that, for some inexplicable reason, had been at the top of the tent, and Cedric emerged, wobbling slightly on some loose rocks near the entrance.

"See, he needed that hug off you," I whispered to Kes, and got an elbow in the ribs.

We clapped for Cedric, for Fleur, for Krum, but all the time I was getting more and more scared for Harry.

As Krum came out, my fears were confirmed.

"Typical," I muttered. "He would get the bloody Hungarian Horntail, wouldn't he..."

Finally, the cannon went off for the last time and Harry, trembling from head to toe, left the safety of the tent and found himself facing an arena empty of everything except the pile of eggs, the golden one perched precariously on the top. The crowd screamed for him just as much as they had Cedric, but silence soon fell as there was still no dragon anywhere to be seen.

As Harry stepped forward towards the eggs, a spiked black tail suddenly slammed down between him and the eggs, catching his arm and making everyone watching jump. And scream, in most cases. I clutched Kes' arm as the dragon came into full view.

Objectively, I could see why Hagrid called them magnificent; her scales and spikes caught the sunlight in a way that was almost attractive, and she certainly made an impressive sight, rearing up to protect her eggs.

However, given her clear desire to attack and quite possibly eat Harry, I was seeing her as nothing more than a massive, black, spiky beast that had an attitude problem. The twins' plans for turning Malfoy and Snape into ferrets were looking more and more appealing by the second.

"Why didn't I tell him?"

Kes looked at me, distracted from the dragon, who was now curling up on top of the eggs. "Ashleigh, I'm begging you, do _not_ start shouting down to Harry that you're in love with him!"

"But_ look_ at that thing, Kes! It's going to _eat_ him, and I never said..."

She patted my arm. "Not the time, Ashleigh. Although, you may have a point about the eating..."

I moaned and must've looked like I was about to cry. Kes hastily put an arm round me. "Okay, bad thing to say, I'm sorry! He'll be fine, and you can tell him how much you want his babies."

Unwillingly, I laughed. "Nice way to put it, Kes. But still. Not the point. He's about to be eaten. And he doesn't know."

"You really believe that? And no he isn't. Not if he stays there..."

I looked down. Harry had hidden behind a rock and appeared to be silently panicking.

"_HARRY!_" I shrieked. "_DO SOMETHING!_"

He looked up, taking a deep breath. "_Accio Firebolt!_"

Kes looked relieved that that was all I'd shouted and seconds later, the broomstick came whizzing over the heads of the teachers, who were sat in the area as far away from the dragon as it was possible to get.

As soon as Harry got on his broom, he relaxed noticeably. That was where he was most comfortable. The dragon was nothing more than the opposing team to him now.

The next few minutes were a bit of a blur for me.

Harry swerved and dodged the fire she sent at him, but did get grazed on the cheek by her tail again.

However, in a time quicker than any of the others, he got the Horntail off the ground and was diving for the egg, soaring up and out of reach before anyone realised what had happened.

And then the air was full of cheers and screams and I was hugging Kes and crying because he was alright and it was over and the dragon was now being subdued by about twenty wizards. The twins spared two seconds to laugh at me before running around sorting out all the bets that had been placed.

I grabbed Kes' hand and pulled her back towards the tent, where Ron and Hermione seemed to be heading.

I heard her mumble some sort of protest about not wanting to see Cedric, but I kept hold of her as we burst into the tent, which Madam Pomfrey seemed to have turned into a hospital.

Hermione gave me an exasperated sort of smile and nodded to a curtain, from behind which I could hear Madam Pomfrey's irritated voice bemoaning the various things Harry had to deal with. "He's behind there. Give him a minute to get cleaned up." She lowered her voice. "And Kes, Cedric's down there." She indicated a purple curtain that had been put up at the other end of the tent.

"Well he can stay down there," she grumbled.

I laughed. Everything seemed so much lighter, so much happier and so much funnier not that the danger of Harry's impending death had gone (well, as much as it ever did with him).

After much rustling of bandages and clattering of pots of salve behind the curtain, Harry was finally allowed to stick his head round.

"Ashleigh?"

I just about registered the bright orange paste covering the grazed side of his face and the sling on his arm before I flew at him, throwing my arms round him and burying my face in his neck, in a weird reversal of this morning.

"Oh my god I can't believe it, you're alright, you're okay, you were amazing..." I went on mumbling mostly incoherent things against his neck, only realising what it must look like I was doing when I heard a camera go off, and Snape's unmistakable voice.

"And what the devil is going on here?"

I let go of Harry, going bright red and not looking at Snape. "Oh, sir, I was just, um, telling Harry well done..."

He gave me a disbelieving look and swept out again followed by Rita Skeeter, Alex Codman and his camera.

Kes looked confused. "Did they come in here for a reason?"

"Of course she did," Hermione said, sounding disgusted. "She's run out of gossip on Harry and came to find some more." She nodded at us. "You two may well find yourselves on the front page tomorrow."

Harry blinked. "The _front page_? We were only hugging!"

Ron shrugged at him.

I edged back over to Kes, who was glancing anxiously down the tent, hoping that all the commotion wouldn't attract Cedric.

"Why the hell was Snape with her?"

Kes and I started to speculate about possible illicit romantic connections between Snape and Rita Skeeter whilst Harry and Ron had an awkward conversation behind us, ending in a manly, one armed hug.

Madam Pomfrey bustled over, inspected Harry's cheek, then vanished the orange paste with a wave of her wand, pronouncing him free to go.

"Shall we head back up to the castle then? I'm starving..." Harry got several looks after the fuss he'd kicked up at breakfast, but we all turned to head out of the tent.

Before we got there, however, Fred and George sauntered in, their pockets clinking brightly with a successful morning of bet-taking.

"Now then! What's this I hear about you and our young Mr. Potter here?" demanded Fred, giving me a look.

"What? Where did you hear, well, whatever you heard?"

Next to me, Kes smirked.

"Well," George began. "We just happened to be walking past the charming Rita Skeeter and that man with the fish name-"

"- when we heard them discussing the contents of tomorrow's Daily Prophet..." finished Fred with a glance between me and Harry.

I groaned. "Great. That's just what we need. I was only saying well done!"

Fred grinned. "Yes, that's what we heard..."

"But it sounded like a 'well done' of the more non-verbal kind... There was definitely something about a bivouac..." George trailed off. "What the hell is a bivouac, anyway?"

We all looked at each other, but no definition of bivouac was forthcoming.

At this point, Ron and Hermione dragged Harry out, remembering that he needed to collect his score.

"I think I've read it somewhere..." Kes frowned. "Isn't it some sort of tent-like thing?"

"Either way, Skeeter's putting something in about you two and needing private time in a bivouac..."

"_PRIVATE TIME IN A BIVOUAC, WHAT THE HELL?_" My voice was quite impressively high pitched.

"Shut _up_ you'll attract Cedric!" Kes whispered frantically.

I noticed George smile a bit too much at this.

Fred backed away. "Okay, Ashleigh, this is the point where you need to calm down... I don't really feel like being slapped today..."

"It's not _you_ that would get a slap!"

"It's true, Freddie, it's Skeeter that needs to worry. And anyway, it's not like she _would_ object to private time in a bivouac with Harry..."

"Okay, _you_ might need to start worrying, George Weasley."

He backed away to join Fred near the tent flap, looking sheepish.

"You really can't threaten him for something he's right about..." Kes made an attempt to sound reasonable whilst trying not to laugh. "You would _love_ to get stuck in a, um, bivouac with Harry."

I glared at all three of them. "You lot are bloody luck Harry isn't in here right now. Now let's go eat something before he-" I gestured to Cedric's curtain "-realises that she's here." I pushed Kes towards the exit of the tent.

"Before we go..." Fred exchanged smirks with his twin.

George looked at me innocently. "You sure you don't want us to clear this lovely large bivouac and bring Harry back...?"

He and Fred ran off before I could reply, leaving me with an amused Kes.

"They have a point."

"We aren't even _together_!" I pointed out.

Kes refused to take that as an acceptable answer and teased me constantly the whole way up to the castle, where she sat me down on the bench next to Harry for lunch and spent the whole meal smirking at me.

She had a point, I know. We'd both wanted to tell each other today, but part of me thought that it would be easier to carry on with the we-both-know-we-like-each-other awkwardness than to actually tell him I liked him. For now, it could stay unspoken between us.

It wasn't like we didn't know.

_**R&R?**_

_**Kes and Ashleigh**_


	12. Ashleigh: Save the Last Dance For Me

_**Hello! We are definitely on a role atm!**_

_**So in this chapter there's a bit from Kes' POV that I wrote because we decided to try that (mainly to see who could embarrass the other the most).**_

_**And we disclaim yet again... Potato and Villiers are ours though. Technically.**_

_**Title from "Save the Last Dance For Me" by Michael Bublé.**_

_**Chapter 12:**_ **Save the Last Dance For Me**

It was madness in the common room the evening following the first task.

Fred and George had vanished for a couple of hours around three, and turned up again with bags full of Honeydukes sweets and crates full of butterbeer which they proceeded to give out to everyone to general enthusiastic bemusement at where it had all come from.

I was sat in the corner watching Kes watching George when Fred suddenly appeared next to me with two bottles of butterbeer.

"Thought I'd grab you one before Ron drinks them all. I swear I'm not related to that boy."

I looked over to where Ron was sat with George and Harry, surrounded by bottles. He seemed a lot more giggly than usual. Harry caught my eye and we both blushed and looked away.

Fred laughed. "I'm not sure who's worse," he said with a long-suffering sigh. "You two-" he nodded at me and Harry "-or those two." He pointed at Kes and George with his bottle.

Kes had wandered over to join the three boys and George leapt up to make room for her, which resulted in a bright red Kes and several bottles being knocked over. Ron let out a distressed sort of yell and dived to save the bottles before realising that they were all empty.

George sent Kes a quick, almost nervous looking smile before turning away quickly and engaging Harry in what was clearly a deep and meaningful conversation.

As amusing as this was to me and Fred, it did however leave poor Kes alone with a slightly drunken Ron.

"We should probably go and rescue her..." I said, smirking.

"Says the girl who just wants to go and sit with Harry," said Fred, giving me a knowing look.

I threw a sugar quill at him. "Shut up."

"Hey now!" He looked at me sternly. "I am not Professor Potato. No throwing food at me."

I rolled my eyes at him. I started to get up to go and save Kes from the horror of drunken Ron, but Fred grabbed my arm and pulled me back down.

"Don't worry about it. She's got him."

I looked over, expecting to see her involved in an awkward conversation with George, or possibly talking to Harry, instead she'd been pulled into a conversation with –

"Neville?"

"Shhh!" Fred gave me a significant look. "This is the perfect time to put Operation Valkyrie into action..."

I started to laugh. "Seriously? With _Neville_? Somehow, I don't see that working."

Fred and I had decided, several weeks ago, that the situation with Kes and George, namely them both liking each other but neither of them admitting it to anyone, was getting out of hand and that they needed some encouragement. So we concocted a brilliant plan: get one of them involved with someone else, and the subsequent jealously would do the rest. "You see," Fred had said, waving a sausage at me over breakfast. "You and Harry have made it blatantly obvious to the entire castle, but these two need a bit of a shove in the right direction."

Hence Operation Valkyrie was born. Getting Fred to keep something from George wasn't going to be the easiest thing in the world, what with the bizarre twinny connection they had, but it had to be done; it was for his own good after all.

We decided it would be better to get Kes with someone, although looking at Fred's choice now, I couldn't quite remember why we'd come to that conclusion (sort of like how I wasn't entirely sure why we had called it Operation Valkyrie).

"You want to try and get Kes to think, erm, _romantically_ about _Neville Longbottom_?"

Fred shrugged. "Well who else do you suggest we try? Seamus likes you, and I'm pretty sure Dean's gay..."

"Okay. Fine. Let's try and set up Kes and Neville. And Seamus absolutely does _not_ like me!"

"Please. He totally does. Have you seen the way he glares at Harry?"

We passed the next ten minutes debating the intricacies of Seamus' behaviour and plotting ways to get Kes and Neville alone before Seamus himself stood up on the other side of the common room and called for silence, holding the golden egg above his head.

"Okay Harry, I know you're supposed to work this out on your own, but what's the clue?" He threw the egg at Harry, a little more viciously than necessary, and only just missed Kes' head.

George and Neville glared.

Fred leaned in to whisper in my ear. "I think stage one's done... Neville is displaying apparent protectiveness over Kes, suggesting that he wouldn't be entirely averse to the prospect of him and her-"

He was, however, interrupted in his militaryesque commentary on Neville's behaviour when Harry opened the golden egg and a horrific screeching noise filled the common room.

Harry snapped it shut after every single person present (most of Gryffindor) clapped their hands over their ears and made some sort of noise of protest and the silence seemed to ring through the room for a moment before everyone's ears adjusted.

"Bloody hell! What was _that_?" The noise appeared to have jerked Ron out of his drunken stupor.

However, all the noise had attracted Professor McGonagall, who insisted loudly that we all go to bed, as it had got, without any of us noticing, to two thirty in the morning.

K&AK&AK&A

The next morning at breakfast, the Gryffindor table was slightly quieter than usual as we all yawned over our toast and pumpkin juice.

Fred and I had flopped into seats near Neville, leaving a space between him and me which Kes took, not really noticing that he was there until he shyly said good morning to her. She was busy giving me suspicious looks, as I'd warned her to wear shorts under her skirt today after a rather amusing vision, but had failed to inform her why.

George, Harry, Ron and Hermione were sat opposite us, Harry and I sharing several awkward eye contact moments over the top of the strawberry jam, leaving both our faces pretty much the same colour as said jam.

However, all was as calm as could be hoped for, with nothing more interesting than eye contact and George sending Kes a few unnoticed, wistful looks down the table, until mail arrived (a fact helped by Ron's slight hangover; he was doing nothing except staring blankly into his goblet).

Hermione, the only one of us who bothered getting the Daily Prophet, unrolled it and glanced at the front page before choking on her pumpkin juice.

A few people mumbled a sleepily alarmed "What?" at her and she just glanced between me and Harry before letting us see the paper.

"Oh for the love of god!" I silently cursed Rita Skeeter and her bloody fishman photographer.

Emblazoned across the top of the front page was a large headline proclaiming "HARRY POTTER'S FIRST LOVE" and the picture of us hugging with my face hidden in his neck from yesterday.

Needless to say, comments followed the two of us for the entire morning (there was also much speculation as to what a bivouac could be) and, for once, I was glad to escape into Transfiguration where McGonagall would shut everybody up. My only response was that it must've been a rather slow news day if Harry Potter's love life could make the front page.

"I mean, I wouldn't mind so much," I had said to Kes in Potions first thing. "But we aren't actually together!"

That lesson had been all but unbearable. The combination of Malfoy and Snape was never a good thing, and especially not today. Malfoy set up his cauldron on the table next to us and spent the entire forty five minutes making snide comments about everything from my taste in men to Harry's lack of family (the words 'broken record' spring to mind).

However, something happened in Transfiguration that put me and Harry out of everyone's minds. After a particularly disastrous attempt at turning guinea fowl into guinea pigs (mine grew antlers and started to moo), McGonagall put me in charge of collecting everyone else's considerably better attempts and locking them away.

I didn't mind doing that in the slightest – not only do I love guinea pigs, but I got to laugh at everyone else's mistakes without them noticing (it was never good if I laughed at someone else, what with my track record). It also got me out of the seat next to Harry, who had been unusually quiet all morning and kept going red if he so much as looked at me. I'd mind more, but I was doing exactly the same.

After I'd locked the cages, which now housed, among others, Hermione's perfect guinea pig, Kes' pretty good attempt whose only problem was that it was an unattractive shade of green and Neville's attempt, which came second only to mine – it was orange, still had feathers and made a noise a bit like a tiger, I went back to my seat and looked over at Harry only to find him and Ron having a furious but silent sword fight below desk level with two of Fred and George's fake wands. Kes caught my eye and we both smirked, even more so when McGonagall noticed them and told them to "act their age".

"So as I was _saying_," said McGonagall, with a disparaging look at Harry and Ron, who were holding respectively a headless rubber haddock and a tin parrot. "The three tasks are not the only traditions of the Triwizard Tournament. On Christmas Day, we will be holding the Yule Ball, for which we will gather in the Great Hall for an evening of _well-mannered _frivolity. If you will all follow me, please."

Bemused, we all picked up our bags and followed her to a large room that I wasn't aware existed and as we all traipsed in after her, we saw the rest of Gryffindor sat around the edges of the room, girls on one side, boys on the other.

Kes and I exchanged a bewildered look; clearly, none of us had been intelligent enough yet to consider the meaning of the word 'ball'.

When everyone was settled, Filch came in, proceeded by a rather large gramophone which he then stroked fondly before skulking back out the room.

McGonagall stood in front of the gramophone at the end of the room, surveying her House.

"Now, as you will all have no doubt realised by now, the Yule Ball is, principally, a dance."

Kes and I looked at each other, horrified. _Dancing_? Well, that would go well.

McGonagall went on for a minute about how the House of Godric Gryffindor had commanded the respect of the wizarding world for nearly ten centuries and if we ruined it all in one night then woe betide us, etc, etc. She moved onto some slightly questionable metaphors then, calling all the girls swans and the boys lions, before surprising everyone by asking Ron to join her in the centre of what I belatedly realised was a dance floor.

Harry was smirking and pushed Ron forwards. Behind him, Fred was in silent hysterics, but next to him, George was staring at Kes, frowning slightly as if deep in thought. She hadn't noticed, she was too busy laughing at Ron, who had just been instructed to put his hand and McGonagall's waist.

"Where?" he exclaimed, horror-struck.

She gave him a very stern look. "My _waist_, Mr Weasley."

When they were in something that vaguely resembled ballroom hold, the gramophone began to emit an ancient-sounding waltz and McGonagall attempted to demonstrate the dance we all needed to learn.

After a painful couple of minutes, she paused. "Right, everyone find a partner and practise!"

I had been amusing myself by wondering if Snape was having to teach the Slytherins this and picturing him and Malfoy waltzing around when I was brought back to reality by this command to actually dance.

I turned to Kes. "What, she wants us to dance _now_?"

I looked across the room. Harry was staring at me, but I couldn't really see him being able to dance at the moment, his arm was still in a sling. Fred leaned down to whisper something to him and he nodded, looking, I thought, slightly relieved.

Fred then practically bounced across the room to stand in front of me and held his hand out. "Miss Skelhorn?"

I looked at Kes. She was staring across the room at George. I rolled my eyes and took Fred's offered hand.

"Hey, Georgie!" Fred called over his shoulder. "Come dance with Kes!"

But before the bright red George could take even one step towards the equally bright red Kes, Neville appeared out of nowhere, asking Kes to dance.

After an awkward moment during which everyone exchanged glances with about five other people, Kes seemed to realise that she had no choice and followed Neville into the middle of the dance floor.

Me and Fred stood and 'awww'ed at George's positively heartbroken expression. He then appeared to realise how dejected he looked and shook his head, making his way over to Katie Bell.

I can't honestly say that I was good at dancing. Fred was worryingly good, and as he was leading, it wasn't as horrific as it could've been, but I did fall over both his and my feet on multiple occasions.

Kes was faring no better, although, like Fred, Neville was weirdly good at it – made weirder by the fact that it was Neville.

However, it was one of the more entertaining ways to spend a morning, definitely preferable to yesterday's panic. When we were finally allowed to stop, after Fred had just attempted a complicated little twirl that resulted in me almost knocking Seamus onto Harry's lap, I fell out of his arms, giggling and apologising.

McGonagall gave me a raised eyebrow look and Kes shook her head at me.

"Now then, it is November 26th today, giving you just under a month to, ahem, improve slightly, if you wish to practise some more. Also, the most important thing for the ball is for everyone to have a partner, so the Headmaster asked the Head of House to tell you this now so that you all have time to find somebody."

And with that, she walked out, leaving the room in a stunned silence.

Ron began to moan. "Ask someone _out_? But that's like _impossible_!"

After the general amusement at this comment had died down, Fred stepped forward.

"Allow me to prove you wrong, little brother." With all eyes on him, he made a great show of looking all around the room before stopping at Angelina Johnson. With an over-dramatic bow, he looked her straight in the eye and said, "Would you do me the honour of accompanying me to the ball, my lady?"

When everyone's laughter had died down again, Angelina nodded. "Yeah, alright then." She turned back to her conversation with Katie, with a slight grin.

Fred turned to Ron. "And that's how it's done."

Ron grimaced. "Is all the, um, bowing necessary?"

He received several raised eyebrows for that.

"Only if you want to look like a gay nobleman," smirked George.

"Yeah, he's been getting tips off Villiers," added Kes, and as she caught George's eye, they both quickly busied themselves with tying their shoes (in George's case) or looking for their bag.

Harry was making a pretty bad attempt at not laughing and muttered something about going to the bathroom, walking off without his bag.

Ron tried to point this out about thirty seconds too late.

"It's fine, he can come back for it," said Hermione, rolling her eyes at Ron's slowness.

I turned had away for all of ten seconds to answer Parvati Patil's question about our our Potions homework, but when I looked back, Kes was crouched down, rooting through Harry's bag.

"Kes! What the hell are you doing?"

She looked up guiltily. "I want to see if he's written things like 'Mrs. Ashleigh Potter' inside his books..."

I raised an eyebrow. "I thought it was me that was meant to do that."

She shrugged. "Whatever. Come help me look."

"No! I'm not going through his bag!" I looked around, but thankfully no-one's attention was on us.

Kes pulled a book out of his bag at random. "Let's see then."

I looked at the book she was holding. "His Potions book? Really? I don't think he'd risk writing that in there! Actually, I don't think he'd write that at all, but that's apparently beside the point..."

"Well, I'll look out for 'Harry loves Ashleigh's as well then..."

I sighed. "Crap! Kes he's coming back!"

Harry had just come through the door and Kes didn't really stand a chance of getting the book back in his bag without him seeing.

"Do something with it!"

"What?"

"Anything!"

With hindsight, giving Kes free rein to do 'anything' was a bad idea. She looked around frantically and before I could stop her, she threw the book inside the massive gramophone.

I groaned. "How the _hell_ are we supposed to get that back?"

Then I grinned. This morning's vision was starting to make a lot more sense...

K&AK&AK&A

_Kes POV (by Ashleigh)_

People were starting to head to lunch, but we were left with a dilemma, namely how to retrieve that stupid book out of the bottom of the gramophone.

Ashleigh was no help whatsoever; she was busy staring longingly across the room at Harry. Up to me then. How well was this going to go?

I hung around waiting for the room to clear and ended up laughing with Fred at Ashleigh and Harry who, after gravitating towards each other, were having a shy (but presumably inappropriate, knowing Ashleigh) conversation in a corner while George and Neville had a manly chat about gnomes.

The room eventually cleared when George decided to demonstrate how to successfully swing a gnome over a hedge with an abandoned high-heeled shoe (possibly property of Malfoy), which promptly flew into the gramophone, leaving a Galleon sized hole and a very large crack.

"Nice one, Georgie!" Fred called.

Ashleigh and Harry looked relieved that his attention had been diverted.

I was laughing, caught George's eye and conveniently went bright red (again).

Cue awkward moment.

This was broken by Ashleigh's soft "See you later, guys" as she and Harry went over to the door. Before she disappeared round the door, she turned back to me and mouthed "_Get that book!_"

I sighed. So nice of her to help.

I couldn't really see how I was going to be able to get the book with the twins in the room without then asking awkward questions, so after we wandered out of the room (with a reluctant-to-leave-the-dancing Neville) I made my oh-so-subtle escape back.

"I'll catch up with you guys, I've, erm, left my Potions work in there, and Snape will murder me..." Not that we had Potions for about three days. But they didn't know that...I hope.

I got a raised eyebrow off Fred but they let me run back down the corridor.

Okay. Mission accomplished. Well, first, very simple, mission.

I stood and looked at the gramophone. How the hell was I meant to get in there?

I debated different ways of climbing into a gramophone, but that isn't really the sort of thing that one has a lot of experience with, so I was a bit stuck, short of sticking my head down it.

I shrugged. "Can't be _that_ hard..." I muttered, dragging a chair over and taking my shoes off before standing on it and peering into the black depths of the gramophone.

"Hmm. What could possibly go wrong...?" I should have remembered, of course, that this was me.

With trepidation, I stuck my head into it, but couldn't see anything. Fine.

I tried to reach down it, but the bloody book was too far down. This thing really was too big.

With both arms in, I leaned a bit further forward, stuck my head back in and managed to lose my balance. I let out an undignified squeak as I slid down, partly into the gramophone and felt the chair fall backwards as my feet caught the back.

The gramophone was big enough that I had managed to slide into up to halfway down my thighs, making it impossible for me to get out. My legs flailed uselessly and my arms were stuck near my head.

On the upside, I found the damn book.

This was so typical of me, but I never thought I'd find myself stuck upside down in a gramophone.

I was desperately hoping that Snape wouldn't walk in when I noticed that if I turned my head to the left slightly, I could see out of the hole that George had made earlier with that shoe. Well that was really helpful. I could _see_ the door that I couldn't get to.

Now I would be able to see when Snape walked in and was confronted with my feet waving around, sticking out the top of the gramophone.

Belatedly, probably due to the ridiculously increased amount of blood in my head, I remembered the slightly horrifying fact that I was wearing a skirt and that my tights really weren't that thick. I panicked and flailed around more frantically for the next ten seconds before realising that that was completely counter-productive.

Through the rush of blood to my head came the memory of Ashleigh insisting that I wear shorts today under my skirt "because it's _really_ windy today...". This insistence, however, had come after a few seconds of a now familiar blank look on her face and a sudden bout of giggles which she put down to vision of Harry tripping over Professor Potato on the stairs, sending Potato flying dramatically into Villiers' arms and Harry into a heap on the floor. I should really know her better by now – it was far too obvious that she'd made that up, but Neville kept distracting me at breakfast.

She'd known this was going to happen.

I narrowed my eyes at the bit of door that I could see through the hole. "That little...hmph!"

I was going to kill her.

Just when I was getting seriously worried about the amount of blood in my head and the lack of it in my legs, the door handle turned and I thought Snape was about to walk in.

I braced myself for the horrificness of that situation when a different, but still mortifyingly familiar voice called out: "Kes? How long does it take to-"

George trailed off as he saw my legs waving feebly around and stood there in shocked silence. How helpful.

"George?" Nothing. "A little help would be nice..."

He blinked. "What the _hell_ are you doing?"

I attempted to shake my head, which only resulted in me whacking it on the side of the gramophone.

"Oh, I don't know. I'm just, you know, hanging out in a gramophone upside down, despite the fact that my lovely best friend _knew_ this was going to happen and did absolutely nothing to stop it!"

He blinked at me again. Well, not so much at me, more at my general feet/legs area. Oh bloody hell. Why George? Why?

"How could she possibly know that this was going to happen?"

Ah, crap. No-one except me and Dumbledore knew about Ashleigh's visions, although various other people did have their suspicions (especially after she handed in a history essay before Villiers set it).

"Well, it's me, trying to reach something at the bottom of a gramophone, so, you know. She clearly would rather go have lunch with Harry than help. And speaking of help..."

"Trying to reach..." George shook his head. "Okay. Right. Yes. Sorry. Help."

He came over, and it was only then that I realised that the hole I was looking through was at a height that could prove rather awkward. I coughed and looked away, but there wasn't really anywhere else to look so I had to content myself with trying to look without seeing. I couldn't, however, help the thought that drifted through my head: "Could his trousers _be_ much tighter?" I was not impressed by how much that thought sounded like Ashleigh.

Being much taller, no chair was required for George to reach into the gramophone, and I was just beginning to panic about where he was going to put his hands when I felt him take hold of my waist. Okay. Could be worse.

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at pulling me out, he stepped back and told me he was going to get help. He walked away very quickly and I noticed the back of his neck and his ears were very red.

Abandoned and upside down in a gramophone, I was left with nothing much to do except wait and try not to think about how warm George's hands had been when he'd touched me, nor the possible explanations of his red ears.

I was saved from these thoughts (that I _wasn't_ thinking) sooner than I expected as the door opened again.

However, it was not the bright red hair of the Weasley twins that greeted my eyes, it was the back of Villiers' head. How bizarre. The reason for this soon became clear as he stumbled a couple of steps further into the room and saw Potato pushing him backwards whilst kissing him fiercely and (_oh dear god_) unbuttoning his shirt.

Crap.

I was _not_ going to, well, dangle here and watch two of my teachers do what it looked like they were about to do. That was something _Ashleigh_ would do, but not me. Definitely not me.

I cleared my throat, but it just happened to clash with a noise I had never wanted to hear from either of them, so I continued to go unnoticed.

I was being to really panic (again), as Villiers was in the process of removing Potato's belt, when the door opened again and this time it was George with back up, aka Fred.

They walked in, saw Potato and Villiers and simultaneously coughed very loudly. The two men jumped, turned an impressive shade of scarlet and (thank god) stopped undressing each other. They also noticed me, well, my legs, at that point and their blushes went even darker.

Mumbling something incoherent that could've been an apology, a threat, or anything really, they all but fled from the room.

The twins started laughing.

"I'd say we've got blackmail for life there, George."

George's reply was cut off when I waved my legs at them.

"Guys? Help! Please!"

After Fred had continued to laugh at me for a further minute, they came over and, one on either side of me this time, took hold of my waist again and managed to drag me out, book and all.

As blood rushed from my head, I stumbled as my feet hit the ground and clutched onto the nearest thing, which just happened to be George. I couldn't really bring myself to care that I was clinging to him like some sort of giant koala bear, but when I eventually stepped back, my head registered it and I felt my cheeks begin to heat up.

He looked at me, despite his own blush, and gave me one of the most incredulous looks I have ever been on the receiving end of.

"Why the bloody hell did you not just use a Summoning Charm?"

I blinked. "Because that would've been intelligent and oh my god I am going to murder Ashleigh!"

K&AK&AK&A

_Ashleigh POV_

Harry and I had almost finished lunch when Kes, whose face matched the twins' hair, came storming into the Great Hall, with the two twins in tow (George also looking rather red).

She got to where we were sat and stood over me. "I'm going to kill you. I'm actually going to kill you."

I bit my lip so I wouldn't smile. Harry was looking at us curiously.

I gave Kes my best innocent look. "And why would you want to do that?"

"You _knew_ that I was going to get stuck-"

"Hey, is that my book?" Harry interrupted her.

She glared at the book. "Erm, yeah, you, er, left it in the dancing room."

She all but threw it at him across the table before sitting down huffily next to me and stealing what was left of my chips.

A few seats down, the twins were having a whispered argument that involved a lot of discreet looks at Kes and ended in George hitting Fred on the shoulder with a baguette. "Not right now!" he hissed, before Fred shrugged and turned back to his food.

I grinned, having a pretty good idea of what they were talking about. I'd consult with Fred later.

Now, however, I turned to Kes. "So what actually happened? I only knew you'd fall in..."

She went off on a rant that I only caught random snatches of such as "Potato and Villiers ripping each others' clothes off" and "George had to pull me out".

Well that explained the red face, at least. As intrigued as I was about Potato and Villiers, there was something much more important that I had to ask her.

"Why the _hell_ did you not just use a Summoning Charm?"

_**R&R?**_

_**Kes and Ashleigh :D**_


End file.
